


Splice

by animefreak728



Category: Kid vs. Kat (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2018-12-22 13:45:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 48,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11968647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animefreak728/pseuds/animefreak728
Summary: In an incident involving an unstable machine Kat and his sister have been turned into humans with cat ears and tail, while Coop and Dennis now have ears and a tail like Kat! They all have to work together to solve this problem and get along long enough to do it. Will they succeed? Eventual Coop x Kat and Dennis x OC. Slow-burn.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I actually posted this story 5 years ago on fanfiction.net, but with me going through high school at the time, and then college, the story got forgotten. Now that I'm in my last year of college I have a bit more time to myself (a tiny bit) and decided to get back into it and finish the story. I'll try to do weekly updates. :)

Kat sat frustrated in his chair as the face of the Emperor faded from the screen. He could feel the hot waves of anger flowing through him as his body started to shake. He lifted his arm and slammed it back down onto the arm of his chair, completely destroying the left armrest. The pieces were now scattered across the floor.

" _Dammit!"_ He yelled in rage. He clutched his right fist tightly in his other paw as he swore under his breath.

What remained of the chair started to vibrate as his body shook in rage. He could still hear the Emperor's voice as he sneered down at him through the monitor.

**. . .**

" _Do you wish to explain yourself Agent 27B?"_

" _What do you mean, your grace?" Kat said evenly. The Emperor's lip curled in annoyance._

" _Would you like to explain how two humans have been able to thwart you in your plans to conquer this planet time and time again and you have yet to destroyed them!?" The Emperor bellowed. Kat's ears twitched slightly at the noise but other than that his face remained devoid of emotion._

" _I do admit that these humans," Kat sneered, "are becoming quite the nuisance, but if my lord were to give me more time I would quickly dispose of them." Kat said smoothly. Though his face remained blank his heart was beating at a rapid tempo._

_The Emperor growled deep in his chest and let out an angry hiss._

" _No! Unless you can prove your worth to me within the next 5 Earth days I will personally have you shipped off to the Litter Mines for the rest of your life! Do I make myself clear?!" He said in finality._

_Kat's eyes narrowed slightly as he placed his paws behind his back._

_"_ _Of course my liege." Kat said, his paws clenching tightly as he physically tried to restrained himself from speaking out of turn. He could feel the blood pounding in his ears as his anger started to take over his senses._

_The Emperor sent one last sneer through the monitor before shutting off his end of the transmission, causing the screen to fade into black..._

**. . .**

Kat gritted his teeth tightly as he thought through his options.

Could he pack up the rest of his items and research and go into hiding? No, he berated himself. There would only be other invaders sent to look for him. Invaders who would probably tear through the entire town just to find him, as well as cause a global panic in the process.

He stood quickly from his seat to pace around the room.

He had 5 days to impress the Emperor. That meant he had five days to think of a possible escape or a damned good lie. One believable enough to satisfy his  _royal highness'_  royal expectations.

He growled in anger as no ideas seemed to come to him. As he paced he didn't notice he was walking towards the corner table until his knee painfully hit against it. The table and the items resting on it shook violently. One of the three photos started to slide and fall off the edge of the wood. Kat saw this and quickly dived down to catch it before the glass were to hit the floor. The frame landed safely in his paws and he breathed a sigh of relief as he looked down at the photo.

The picture was of a smaller cat. Her skin, a few shades darker and pinker than his, but they shared the same violet eyes. He smiled down at the picture before gently placing it back on the table to look at it some more.

That was when the idea hit him. His sister!

He quickly ran to his bookshelf and searched through the labels until finding a thick packet of plain white paper, the label reading  _Invader Rules and Regulations_. He took it down from the shelf and quickly flipped through the pages, stopping to read through one passage in particular.

" _A high ranking invader of any class may be provided an assistant. This assistant must be proven worthy in assisting the invader to the accomplishment of their most current mission."_

" _This assistant may or may not be another invader as long as he/she has been approved of by either the commanding chief or the Emperor."_

Kat smiled thoughtfully as a plan started to form in his mind.

_Yes, this could work!_

Kat quickly placed the book back on the shelf before returning to his monitor. Kat turned on the monitor and quickly typed in his sister's address code. He waited impatiently as the monitor started to ring.

_Pick up, pick up, pick up!_

Kat glared at the monitor as three more rings had sounded.

_Dammit Sis!_

Kat was about to end the transmission when the screen flashed into picture.

On the other side of the monitor stood his little sister. Her paws were covered in oil, and behind her he could see a table covered with tools. She looked at him with a joyful smile.

"Well you don't usually call," she said with a grin.

"Sorry," Kat said sending her an apologetic smile. "Am I interrupting something?" Kat asked glancing at the table of tools and her oil stained paws.

_Always up to something I see._

"I was just about to take a break. Besides Aiden, you can call me anytime ."

"Thank you Sis," Kat said. "The Emperor has become agitated with my lack of success recently. I was hoping you could come to Earth to help me."

"Really?!" She said, her eyes lighting up with excitement. Kat smiled warmly at his sister's enthusiasm.

_Well isn't that cute._

"With your help I think I can convince him to let me stay on Earth," Kat said. His sister stopped her smiling and looked down at him worriedly.

"Aiden, what exactly did he say would happen if you didn't prove yourself?" she said. Kat's eyes moved across the room nervously. "Aiden!?" she yelled through the screen. Kat let out a long sigh. He closed his eyes and rubbed his paw down the side of his face.

"He said that if I don't prove myself useful within the next 5 days I will be sent to the Litter Mines, permanently," Kat said tiredly.

His sister's eyes widened for a moment before she closed them softly. She let out a long sigh and placed her paws over her eyes in frustration.

"What exactly do you plan to do about this?" she asked. Kat smiled at her encouragingly.

"That's where you come in. I want you to come to Earth to help me. I'll tell the Emperor that I've taken on an assistant, one that will greatly improve my chances of success on this planet, as well as make it more inhabitable for us. The Emperor doesn't know that the planet is already ready for us to inhabit, so telling him that it isn't will give us the extra time we need to finish."

"But the Emperor won't let you take on an assistant if he knows it's me."

"Yes, but he won't know that it's you," Kat answered. "I'll tell him that I'm taking on a recruit from the scientist division, and that since you're new you don't have your Science Lab ID yet."

"Why would taking on such a new recruit convince the Emperor to let you stay?"

"I'll inform him that you are also trained in environmental studies, so you will be able to help me make this planet the perfect new home for our population." Kat said proudly. His sister looked at him with astonishment before her expression changed to a sly smirk.

"You've thought this through." she said.

"Naturally." he said with a smirk. "I'll call the Emperor as soon as possible to get this through. You'll need to disguise yourself. He'll want to see this new recruit and we don't want him to recognize you as my sibling."

"I'll start getting ready."

"Good. I'll call you back in-"

"MR. KAT! Where are you?!" Millie yelled, interrupting Kat. Kat cursed under his breath and looked back to his sister, who was snickering to herself.

"Was that Millie?" she asked through her snickering. Kat grumbled under his breath.

"Unfortunately. I'll call you back as soon as I'm done with her," Kat said irritably. She laughed loudly as Millie could be heard yelling for her Mr. Kat.

"Have fun," She teased between her laughs.

"Goodbye Megan," Kat said irritably as his finger went for the off button. Megan's laughter could still be heard as the monitor screen went black.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" Millie yelled from some part of the house.

Kat pressed one of the buttons to the right of the monitor. The monitor flashed into life, showing the surveillance fee from the nine tiny cameras he had set throughout the house. The screen was split into nine different box screens, each one showing the surveillance from each room in the house, including the the hallways and backyard. Kat looked through the different screens before stopping at the image of the Living Room, where Millie could be seen searching for her beloved pet Kat.

"MR. KAAAAT!" Millie's high pitched yell sounded throughout the house. Kat put his paws over his ears to protect himself from the noise. He let out a sigh of defeat as he made his way towards the elevator door of his lab.

Kat groaned loudly as he stepped through the sliding doors.

_How such a small girl's yell can break through soundproof metal walls is beyond me._


	2. Chapter 2

Kat's elevator stopped at the inside of his large cat condo. He stepped out of the cat house, and slowly made his way towards the living room.

As he walked down the stairs he could hear the sounds of Millie's footsteps as she searched through the room.

_She's persistent for such a little girl._

Kat sat in the entryway of the living room as he watched her search around the couch. Her body was swung over the back of the couch as she searched behind it. Kat laughed quietly to himself as she almost fell over the back of the couch. He watched as she flaunted around like a mad bird as she tried to keep her balance.

_I should probably stop this._

"Meow."

Millie's head shot up quickly to look over the edge of the couch. In her haste to get off the couch she accidentally flipped herself over the edge, causing her to land her head on the other side of the couch. Kat rushed over to her side as her body slowly flopped to the ground.

"Oooww!" Millie groaned loudly. Millie rolled over on her stomach and pushed herself up into a sitting position, rubbing her head tenderly. Kat could hear small whimpering sounds coming from her as she did so.

"Meow."

Kat stepped closer, standing on his back legs he placed his paws on her should to inspect the bump forming on her forehead.

_It's going to bruise. It'll hurt but it should be gone by tomorrow._

Millie continued to whimper as she rubbed at the tender bruise on her head.

"Ow, ow, ow," Millie said as she touched it with her finger. Kat sighed softly and swatted her hand away.

_She's such a little kid._

Kat looked back at the bruise and then at Millie's teary eyes. He lifted his paw and softly pat her on the head. Smiling to himself he placed three small licks at the top of her head, where the bruise was. Millie smiled at him and stroked him down his back.

"Thank you, Mr. Kat." Millie said. Kat meowed appreciatively and purred happily as his back was stoked. "Let's go find the bruise cream, then we can play outside!" Millie said excitedly, pushing herself up to stand. Kat meowed happily as he was gently picked up from the ground.

"Once we're outside, Mr Kat, we can play with the new tea set Daddy bought me."

Kat's body tensed in her arms.

_Oh no._

"And I've got the perfect outfit for you! It's upstairs in my room. You can wear it to our tea party!"

_Oh no._

**. . .**

Kat bared his teeth in a silent growl as a frilly pink dress was shoved over his head and onto his body. It took every ounce of his self control not to rip the dress to pieces as soon as she had taken it out of her little plastic purse.

"Oh, don't you look so cute!" Millie squealed happily.

_I look ridiculous._

Unknowing of her pet's thoughts, Millie picked up Mr. Kat and made her way back downstairs towards the backyard.

Kat groaned as he was bounced up and down as Millie skipped her way down the stairs.

_Next time, I'm hiding under a rock until she stops looking for me._

As they made their way through the kitchen, Kat lifted his head to take a glance out the door. Coop and Dennis could be seen playing catch out on the yard. Kat tensed as Millie continued to walk closer to the doors.

_Oh please don't let those two idiots see me!_

Millie happily skipped to the back doors and opened them with a flourish, to which the two boys paid no mind to.

_Thank goodness they haven't seen me yet._

"Presenting the glorious, adorable, and intelligent, Mr. Kat!" Millie bellowed. Kat flinched at the volume of her voice and was unhappy to see the two boys turn in their direction. Their faces took on a moment of shock before their expressions broke out into wide grins.

"Nice dress, Kat! Are you applying for the pretty princess position?" Coop said mockingly. Kat's arms tensed tightly as he felt his claws starting to come out.

"Don't mind them Mr. Kat. They're just jealous that you look way better than they ever will." Millie said, sticking her tongue out at the two of them. "That's why neither one of them have girlfriends" Millie whispered into his ear. Kat smirked deviously at her comment.

_This girl will grow to have a sharp tongue._

Millie turned her back to the both of them, and with her head held high she walked over to the small plastic tea set up to the right of the patio. The tea set came complete with a small yellow plastic table and two small plastic chairs.

Kat was placed at the opposite end of the table as Millie placed her little bag around the back of her seat. In the distance he could still hear Coop and Dennis snickering at this display.

"Hey Millie." Dennis called from across the yard. "I think Kat's outfit is missing something."

Millie blinked in surprise before raking her eyes over Mr. Kat's appearance. She gasped in realization.

"I forgot the bonnet and matching booties!" Millie said loudly. She quickly grabbed her bag off the back of her chair and hurriedly searched through it.

"I'm sorry, Mr Kat. How silly of me." Millie said as she pulled out four little slippers and a matching bonnet. Kat felt the impulsive urge to run as Millie proceeded to place the booties on his paws.

"Now the bonnet." She said tying the bonnet on his head, forcing his ears to lay uncomfortably flat against his head.

"Now you look perfect!" Millie said happily as she hugged him close.

_Now I look as ridiculous as I feel._

Kat could hear the two boys laughing loudly as Millie sat down to pour him a cup of tea.

"Here's some tea," Millie said pointing to the cub she placed in front of him. Kat looked down into the cub, sniffing it. The strong scent of orange infiltrated his nostrils.

_Orange juice? Hm._

"Do you like your tea?" Millie asked from the other side of the table. Kat meowed sweetly and bent his head down to drink out of his little cup. Millie smiled at his enthusiasm and began to drink out of hers as well.

Kat could feel the hot sun shining down on him through the thick fabrics of the dress.

_I'm forced to wear a thickly layered dress on a hot springs day, while sitting in a plastic chair. Oh what did I do?_

Kat groaned quietly as the heat started to cause his stomach to turn. The smell of the odd perfume Millie had sprayed onto the dress was starting to get to him. He was about to run to the nearest tree and hide when his eyes were drawn to a small flashing light from inside the house.

Kat turned his head quickly to see the small light he'd installed on his food bowl flash green, signaling that he had a call waiting for him on his monitor. Kat smirked happily as he let out a breath of air.

_Saved._

He already knew how to leave without drawing Millie's attention.

As Millie drank her "tea" Kat used his nose to slowly tilt the cup forward in his direction, causing the drink to spill all over the sparkly pink dress he wore. The cup fell off the table making a soft clicking noise as it hit the patio floor. Millie looked up from her drink to see Kat staring back at her with the biggest sad puppy eyes he could make.

"Oh, Mr. Kat! Your dress is filthy!" Millie said as she stood from her seat and walked towards him. She quickly lifted the dress off of Mr. Kat and draped it across her arm. "I'll have to find you a new outfit!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Kat. I'll put this in the dirty laundry and be right back!" Millie said, skipping back into the house. Kat smiled happily as he saw the small girl's skipping form disappear into the house.

_Finally._

Kat quickly opened the door and quietly walked his way to the stairs. Making sure not to run into Millie as she skipped to the basement, he quickly sprinted up the stairs. Entering Millie's bedroom he jumped into the entrance of his private labs, breathing a sigh of relief as the elevator door closed with a  _whoosh_.

Kat stepped out of the elevator as soon as the doors reopened themselves and walked over to the monitor screen. He pressed the on button.

"Megan?" Kat asked wide-eyed.

On the other side of the screen sat a small dark purple cat with piercing blue eyes. The cat winked at him and gave him a familiar smile.

"How do I look?" Megan said spinning around. Kat stared at her wide eyed some more before shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

"Perfect. I almost didn't recognize you. Now all we need to do is—what are you staring at?!" Kat asked suddenly. Megan's face was screwed up in a way that looked like she was going to cry from laughing to hard.

"Pft, pff! What the heck are you wearing?!" Megan said before bursting out into a fit of laughs.

Kat looked at her strangely before looking at his reflection in the monitor screen. He growled, annoyed as his reflection came into view. On his paws were still the pink booties Millie had placed on him and on his head sat that atrocious pink bonnet.

Kat angrily ripped the bonnet off his head and lengthened his claws to shred through the booties. Within seconds both were laying in shreds on his laboratory floors.

Glaring down at the remains he could still hear his sister's laughter as she tried to pull herself together.

"Are you done yet?" Kat asked with irritably. Megan raised her paw and took in a deep breath of air before stopping, a single tear shining in her eyes from her laughter.

"OK, I'm done," she said.

"Good. Now as I was saying," Kat said, dragging out the syllables for emphasis. "We will be contacting the Emperor shortly. I need you to put everything I've told you into memory so we can make this sound believable. If we are able to successfully convince him then he may just let me stay on Earth, and then you can stay with me until we are done."

Megan nodded her head in understanding, her back straightening and her eyes narrowing with determination.

"Alright. I remember what you've told me. I put it all to memory as soon as you had said it."

Kat nodded. He had no doubt in his mind that she had already did so.

"Okay. I'll contact the Emperor through a three way call."

Kat pressed one of the buttons on his keyboard and the screen split into two. One side showing his disguised little sister, and the other waiting to be taken up by the Emperor. He could feel his body tense ever so slightly with nervousness.

"Aiden," Megan said softly. He glanced to his sister questioningly.

"It's okay." she said with a reassuring smile. He could feel some of his nervousness float away as he looked at her. Though her appearance was changed, her smile and soft words had stayed the same.

Kat gave her a small nod of thanks before the other side of the screen flashed to life, the figure of a cat coming into view.


	3. Chapter 3

The figure slowly came into focus, and a large cat came into view. The cat wore a gray guard's uniform and a bored look on his face.

"State your business," The guard said gruffly. Kat's back straightened automatically.

"I am Agent 27B. I'm calling to request an audience with The Emperor," He said formally. The guard's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"And the other?" The guard said, referring to the cat on the other half of the screen.

"I am a new recruit from the Science division," Megan replied.

"And what purpose do you have to this meeting?" The guard asked. Kat's eyes narrowed into a deadly glare.

"If I'm not mistaken that's none of your business," Kat said icily. The guard growled at being spoken to so rudely. "The Emperor is expecting my report as soon as possible and I'll be sure to tell him just who held me up."

The guard's eyes widening instantly at those words and Kat could see the specks of fear in his eyes. The Emperor's temper was, of course, well known.

"The Emperor doesn't like to be kept waiting, so I would suggest you be a good little guard and tell the Emperor that I'm here," Kat said.

The guard nodded quickly as he shakily stood from his chair and disappeared from the screen. Kat smiled to himself as he watched the guard practically run from the screen.

_Working these fools is as easy as breathing._

Kat kept his eyes on the screen as they waited for the guard to return. They didn't have to wait long as the guard returned a few moments later.

"Your audience with the Emperor has been approved," He said.

_Finally, you moron._

"You will be put through to the Emperor in a few seconds," The guards said.

Kat nodded his head in acknowledgment. The Emperor enjoyed keeping his people waiting, as though enjoying the fact that he could do so without reprimand. He would, no doubt take his sweet time getting to the monitor. As though his time was that much more important than any others.

The guard nodded back at him before pressing a button on his side of the monitor, causing that side of the screen to go black. The sound of ringing could be heard as they waited to be put off hold.

Kat looked to his sister with boredom.

"This is going to take a while," Kat said. Megan rolled her eyes as the monitor let off another ring.

"Of course, the Emperor's time is very important," Megan said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Indeed," Kat said in a bored voice.

Megan opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by the sound of the screen flashing into focus.

On the other side of the screen sat the Emperor. At the sight of Kat his dark eyes widened in shock, but his expression was quickly schooled back into a scowl.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Emperor said, his claws extending in annoyance. Megan blinked owlishly for a moment before schooling her expression back into a straight face.

She had only seen The Emperor on television, or on the many posters hanging around the city. Though all the posters did show him in the same attire, she hadn't expected him to actually dress like that. Honestly, why wear such ridiculous clothes?

Her eyes discreetly looked over the Emperor's clothes as she thought this. He wore a long dark purple robe with a  _very_  high collar. It looked as though it almost reached over his long, abnormally large ears. He looked as though he was trying to imitate some sort of human vampire, what with his long cape and fangs.

_If this is how he dresses himself then he should hardly have a say in politics, let alone the fates of thousands._

Megan's thoughts were interrupted as her brother began to speak.

"I am sorry to bother you, your highness, but I wanted to report to you on my progress. I hope you will find my report pleasing," Kat said stiffly. The Emperor seemed to calm ever so slightly at the words, his claws detracting back into his paws.

"Carry on with your report," He said with a wave of his paw. Kat nodded his head with a slight bow.

"Thank you, sir," Kat said. "Before your call I had applied for an assistant to be sent to me from the Science Department."

"And am I to assume that this-" he said pointing a clawed digit at Megan. "Is your new assistant."

Megan lowered her head in a slight bow as she spoke.

"My name is Emu, sir, and it's truly an honor to be in your presence," Megan said. She kept herself in a low bow as she spoke, as not to show how she was rolling her eyes..

_Yes, I enjoy this just as much as I enjoy pulling my fangs out._

The Emperor looked her over approvingly before waving his hand for her to continue.

"Carry on," The Emperor said. Megan raised herself from her bow to look directly at the screen.

"I hope to join Agent 27B on his mission, to further enhance our chances of a quick and easy success," she said.

The Emperor nodded his head looking to be thinking this over. His eyes still squinted in suspicion.

"If you are truly involved in our science division then you will have no problem showing me your ID."

"I-"

"She is a new recruit sir, she hasn't yet collected her lab ID," Kat interrupted quickly. The Emperor clenched and unclenched his paws irritably.

"And what, per se, would possess you to take on such a new recruit?"

"Though she is a new recruit I needed someone specific to aid me in this mission, someone with a specific set of skills to help me invade and colonize this planet," Kat said. The Emperor's eyes shot back to Megan, her disguised blue eyes unwavering as the Emperor looked at her with his large dark eyes.

"And what skills would that be, Miss Emu?" The Emperor asked. Megan's stance didn't change, nor did she flinch as the Emperor's foreboding eyes stared her down.

"Sir, I am highly skilled in environmental studies. If sent to Earth I would be able to quickly assess the condition of the environment and be able to identify any factors needing to be changed or destroyed in order to make Earth a possible, and long lasting home for our people," Megan said.

The Emperor nodded his head approvingly, his mind seeming to be envisioning Earth as their next new planet of domination.

"And of course sir, even if we were to choose another planet as our next home, we would still be adding Earth as a valuable part of our collection of planets, though this planet is not worth much it would still sell for something," Kat said.

"Especially with all the free labor the humans would give. The planet could be charged for more if we were to add the humans to our price," Megan added.

This had definitely gotten the Emperor's attention. His eyes widened slightly before narrowing into a contemplative scowl. Oh yes. Kat could practically see the wheels in the Emperor's head turning.

Kat coughed lightly into his paw, drawing the Emperor's attention. The Emperor scowled irritably at the Agent for interrupting his train of thought.

"Of course sir," Kat said respectfully. "This operation will take a long time to complete. Earth is nowhere near a legitimate place for our species to thrive on at the moment, nor is it ready to sell. Various things will need to be changed on this planet in order for any kind to live here."

The Emperor scowled darkly.

"How long exactly would it take to put this planet up to expectations?" The Emperor said looking to Megan.

"I will need to come to Earth myself before giving you a more exact calculation but from 27B's description of the planet, I would have to say somewhere around two Earth years, provided there are no unforeseen incidents," Megan said.

The Emperor eyes slitted into a glare.

"Of course, sir with the planet's large amounts of plant life it could also be deemed even more valuable to another species. The more work put into this planet will only increase the amount of money we can sell it for. For example, if we were to work on this planet as long as we have told you the normal amount you would get from this planet alone would triple in profit," Kat supplied.

The Emperor thoughts were evident on his face as a glint of excitement came to his eyes.

"Alright, Agent 27B. I'll grant your request."

"Thank you, your high-"

"But if I don't see progress in the invasion of this planet and soon, I will send both you-" He said pointing to Kat. "And you" now pointing to Megan. "to the Litter Mines, and have another agent take your place... do I make myself clear?" The Emperor said.

"Yes sir," they both answered in unison. The Emperor nodded sending them one last warning glare before shutting off his end of the transmission, causing that side of the screen to go black.

Kat and Megan watched the other side of the screen for another few moments before letting out a long sigh of relief.

"Well that was fun," Megan said.

"At least we were able to convince him," Kat said as he pressed a button on the monitor. The screen went back to a full view of his sister.

"I guess... anyway I need to wash this stuff off. It's not supposed to by on skin for too long." she said waving her hand over her disguised body.

"Okay. When will you be getting to Earth?" Kat asked

"In approximately... three days," Megan said, smiling brightly. Kat's eyes widened in astonishment.

"Three days? How are you getting here so quickly?"

"Well, before you called I had been putting the final touches on my new ship. I was able to sneak an old broken one out of the army's weapons hold. They had been planning to get it smashed to pieces at the junkyard, so I just pretended to be part of the disposal crew and snuck it over to my workshop," she said triumphantly. "I've now been working on it for the past two whole cycles and I am now finished."

Kat smiled proudly at his sister as she went on to explain some of the modifications she had made to the ship, including how she was able to make it go so fast. Just while she was explaining the inner working of its engine Kat heard a loud high pitched yell.

"MR. KAT! WHERE DID YOU GO?!" Millie yelled from downstairs.

Kat groaned loudly before hitting his head against the control panel. Megan laughed lightly at his distress.

"Your human sure has timing, doesn't she?" Megan said between laughs. "And what an interesting voice she has."

Kat rolled his eyes.

"Yes, it's lovely isn't it?" Kat said, sarcasm practically dripping off his tongue. Kat rubbed at his temples irritably as he heard another scream.

"I'll just send you the coordinates now before she tears the house apart looking for me. Just land in this area and I'll meet you there," Kat said as he typed in the coordinates. Megan nodded as they started to print out on her side of the screen.

"Will do," she said playfully saluted him.

Kat was just about to press the off button when his sister said with an annoyingly sweet voice.

"Have fun,  _Mr. Kat!_ " She said just before bursting into a fit of giggles. Kat scowled darkly at his sister before pressing hard onto the off button. He turned around sharply as he headed back down to the backyard, where Millie will most likely be looking for him.

_Maybe while she's not looking I can find a nice little hole to crawl into and hide._


	4. Chapter 4

Kat groaned loudly as he heard the high pitched calls coming from the downstairs.

_Honestly, couldn't the girl give me a few minutes of peace?_

Kat slowly trudged his way down the stairs and into the living room. As he passed he could see Mr. Burtonburger sitting on the sofa, watching the TV. As he walked passed him he thought about his upcoming plans.

_Megan will be coming within the next three days, which means I'll have to make sure there's no humans there to see it. I'll also have to set up some sort of alarm around the area, just in case a certain uninvited guest decides to drop by. I'll have to get there tonight to get everything started._

A smile spread across his face at the thought of his little sister. Soon he'll get to see her face to face, and with her help he could finally be done with this mission.

Kat was harshly torn from his thoughts as another high pitched scream rang throughout the house.

"MR. KAAAT!" Millie screamed from the backyard.

Kat groaned loudly as he walked through the kitchen.

_Maybe I should try and sneak past her. If I go to the landing point now I could start scoping out the area, and I'll be too far away to hear the full effects of Millie's siren scream._

Kat flinched as he heard another high pitched yell.

_Yes. I should definitely head to the landing point._

Having made up his mind, Kat quickly climbed up onto the counter top just underneath the kitchen window. Looking out the window he could see Coop and Dennis, still playing catch by the fence, and Millie looking around the back of the shed searching for him. He watched her intently, making sure she was far enough away, he quietly opened the window and silently pounced into nearest bush.

_Now, all I have to do is wait for her to go-_

"Millie, do you mind helping me find my glasses?" Mr. Burtonburger called from the living room. "I can't seem to find them, and I'm as blind as a bat without them."

Millie's little head popped up from underneath the bushes she had been looking through.

"Coming Daddy!" Millie yelled back as she scampered back into the house.

Kat let out a sigh of relief as he heard the back door slide shut behind her.

_Easier then I thought._

Kat quickly shook himself out of the bushes, and made his way to the back of the yard. From there he would make his way through the neighboring woods in the back, and straight to the landing point. The dense amounts trees would work wonderfully to lore away any noisy campers or hikers that may come by.

Just as he was about to make it to the end of the yard, he heard the distinct whistle of an object flying through the air. His instincts kicked in, and he quickly jumped out of the way, successfully dodging two baseballs as they flew right past him. Kat's head quickly snapped in the direction of the balls' source and was met with the sight of none other than Coop and Dennis. The former having a slick smile on his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kat. Did those balls almost hit you?" Coop said haughtily. Dennis was smirking beside him and gave Coop a thumbs up.

"To bad we missed," Dennis said

Kat glared heatedly at them both.

_I don't have time for these morons now._

Kat glanced over at the two balls Coop and Dennis had thrown at him and a thought came to mind.

_This will keep those two busy for a while._

Kat slowly picked up the two balls, clenching them tightly in his claws. He could see both boys getting into their fighting positions as they waited for Kat to make the next move. He smirked haughtily as he saw both of the boys tense in anticipation.

_As expected._

Kat's arm shot out like lightning and both the balls were quickly shot towards them, whistling loudly as they sliced through the air.

Coop and Dennis stared in shocked silence as the balls flew past them, smashing soundly into the fence behind. Coop turned his head to look behind them, seeing where the balls had smashed straight through the fence. He quickly looked back at the smirking feline ahead of them.

"What are you smirking about? You missed!" Coop yelled.

 _Now, who said I was aiming at you?_  Kat thought, as he heard the distinct stomping of large feet.

"Huh?" Coop said as a large shadow came over them. He turned around quickly to look into the red, scowling face of Old Lady Munson. Her face had taken on a deep shade of red and her arms laid at her sides, shaking with suppressed anger.

Both boys gulped loudly at the sight, frozen in fear.

" _BURTONBURGER!_ " She yelled loudly, the very ground seemed to shake with its volume. Coop flinched and placed his hands over his ears as her yelling abused his eardrums.

Coop could see Dennis doing the same, his eyes wide with fear as the waited to see what she would do next.

Coop's dad and Millie quickly ran outside, a tired look on his face as he took in the scene before him.

"Hello Old- I mean, Ms. Munson," Mr. Burtonburger said quickly before turning his eyes onto Coop and Dennis.

"Why,  _and how_  did you two break a hole directly through the fence?!" Mr. Burtonburger yelled angrily, as his finger pointed to the two large holes in the fence.

"And more importantly, you two little hooligans smashed three of my lawn gnomes!" Ms. Munson added loudly.

"Dad it wasn't us! It was Millie's stupid cat!" Coop yelled in their defense, pointing in the direction of the feline, only to see that the nuisance wasn't even there.

"Coop, don't you lie to me! Not only are you blaming a cat, but you're blaming a cat that isn't even here! Besides, you can't expect me to believe that a cat had picked up two heavy baseballs and managed to throw them straight throw a fence!" Mr. Burtonburger yelled.

Coop clenched his fist in anger as his face lit up in embarrassment. Oh, once he gets his hands on that cat, he'll-

"That's it! Coop, you and Dennis are both grounded," Mr. Burtonburger said.

"What!?" Coop and Dennis said in unison.

"For two weeks, and you'll both be out here all afternoon until you finish fixing this fence," He said in finality.

"And you two will be over at my house to clean up all the mess you've made," Ms. Munson added gruffly, before she turned to stomp back into her house.

"But-" Coop said.

"NO BUTS!" Mr. Burtonburger yelled. "I don't know why you keep doing this, but I will not have you blaming a cat for your mistakes. Your fifteen now, Coop. It's time you start taking responsibility for your actions."

Coop's mouth dropped in shock as his father glared down at him.

_WHAT?!_

"For the next two weeks there will be no video games, no TV, no internet, and no sports. Do I make myself clear?" He said sternly looking between the two boys.

"...Yes sir." Coop said

"Yes, Mr. Burtonburger." Dennis answered in return.

"Good. I'll be back in two minutes with some thin wood for you two to cover up these holes. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get some wood to replace the broken ones in the fence," Mr. Burtonburger said, raking his hands through his hair as a long, tired sigh escaped his lips.

"I'll be back in a bit, so don't either of you two move while I'm gone. Millie, why don't you help me get the wood and nails from inside?"

"Okay Daddy," Millie said sweetly. As they went to go back into the house, she turned her head to stick her tongue out at the two boys standing next to the broken fence.

Coop's teeth clenched together in frustration as he watched his sister skipped her way back into the house. He was going to kill that cat!

**. . .**

Kat ran as soon as he saw the woman come into sight. Barely making it away before the mere sound of her screaming could shatter his sensitive ears.

He stopped at a nearby clearing as he listened to the surrounding forest.

 _And no humans in sight._ He thought as he looked around.

Kat snickered softly to himself as he remembered the look on the old woman's face before he ran off.

 _No doubt, she'll still be yelling at those two by the time I get back,_ Kat thought as he let out another laugh.

Kat let himself laugh for another moment before calming himself. Taking in a deep breath, he let his senses take over. His ears twitched softly atop his head as he let the sounds of the forest wash over him. His hearing almost instantly magnified.

He could hear the squirrels in the trees, and the insects down below. He concentrated harder as he waited for the sound of human footsteps.

Hearing none, he let himself fall back into his crouching possession, his paws moving swiftly as he quietly made his way through the forest. The only sound to be heard was the soft padding of footsteps, and the whoosh of the wind as he cut through the air.

**. . .**

As Coop nailed another piece of wood into the fence, he could hear his dad's words repeating in his head.

" _It's time you start taking responsibility for your actions."_ Coop hammered harder as his blood started to boil.

" _I will not have you blaming a cat for your mistakes."_ Coop slammed the hammer down hard, causing the rest of the wood to vibrate harshly from his force.

He couldn't believe this!

Take responsibility for himself?! He'd been taking responsibility for the protection of the whole planet, and his dad tells him he needs to be more responsible for himself?!

Coop growled in frustration and kicked his foot against the bottom of the fence. Hot pain shot through his foot as he did so.

"Dammit!" Coop swore loudly. Dennis turned around from his work to look at his best friend.

"You okay, Coop?" Dennis asked as he watched his friends hop up and down on one foot, only to fall on his butt.

Coop let out a long groan before meeting his friend's eyes.

"Yeah I'm okay," Coop answered "I just can't stand that stupid cat! How is it that we work so hard to stop him, but I still get blamed for everything he does?!" Coop yelled in frustration as he rubbed his sore foot.

Dennis gave his friend a sympathetic look.

"I don't know what to tell you, Coop. I understand you're mad, but it's not going to help if you just have a tantrum about it," Dennis said as he moved to sit beside him.

"And it's not like you're alone. I'm always going to be right beside you, no matter what that naked rat does!" Dennis said with a broad smile on his face. Coop stopped rubbing his foot and place his arm around his friend in a one armed hug.

"Thanks Dennis. You're a real friend," Coop said back.

"Oh, I know," Dennis said, making Coop laugh. "Now let's hurry up and fix this fence, then we can see where that mutant went and get him back for this." Dennis said as he pushed himself off the ground.

Looking down at Coop, and extended his hand to him.

Coop nodded his head determinedly, as he grasped his friend's hand.

"Yeah, and we'll teach him a lesson he'll never forget!"


	5. Chapter 5

Kat's run slowed to a jog as the trees around him started to part and the remains of an old path came into view. Following the old beaten trail, he allowed his steps to slow to a walk as he passed by the remaining trees. They opened up to unveil a large open area. The area had once been cleared to become a camp site, but was long since abandoned as being too close to the local wildlife. The grass, as such had not been cut and grew high, just high enough for Kat to crouch under if he so pleased.

It was a large area with tall trees circling it on all sides. Kat could hear the whistle of the wind as it blew through the trees, and the soft chirping of animals as they roamed the forest for their next meal. Kat walked lazily as he let himself enjoy the tranquil surrounding. Out in the distance like this, he could hardly hear the loud screeching of Millie's voice, or the howling of that horrid old woman. Oh, it has been so long since he had last let himself enjoy the evening sun.

 _This will be the perfect place for her to land,_  Kat thought as a soft breeze blew across his face and cooled his skin.

Kat allowed himself one more minute to enjoy the peace before stretching and getting to work. Kat quickly circled the area, listening carefully to the sounds of the animals nearby. He had to make sure this spot was not too close to an animal's den or other place of rest, as not to disturb it when Megan makes her landing. After fifteen minutes of searching the area, Kat was satisfied with his search. There were no animal homes close to the area. Feeling satisfied with his search, he continued to circle the area.

As Kat continued to circle the area he used his claws to mark multiple spots up in the trees, and in the patches of grass down below. There he would set up his surveillance equipment.

 _We wouldn't want our little nuisances to come barging in on us, now would we?_ Kat thought with a smirk.

Each of the surveillance cameras he planned to place would be as small as a common ladybug, making it almost impossible to identify in the dark or in the shadows. Not only that, but each one was equipped with special shielding electronics. As soon as any enemy came within five feet of the protective circle an electric shield would deploy, frying anyone who walking into it.

Kat smirked happily as he marked a few last places around the circle. He could feel the warmth of the sun as it continued its descent from Earth's view. It was probably past 3 by now, and there was no telling what would happen if Millie didn't find him before dinner time. Shivering at the idea, Kat hurriedly climbed down from his perch on the tree, and made his way back down the old trail.

Just as Kat was passing back through the trees, he looked back over the field his sister would be landing in.

 _There will be no way for those humans to get passed this,_ Kat thought with satisfaction. With that satisfying thought in mind Kat once again went into his crouching position and swiftly glided through the air as he ran his way back to the Burtonburger home.

**. . .**

Coop groaned in annoyance as the sun's heat burned his aching back. He could feel the sweat dripping down his neck and soaking his shirt as he and Dennis continued to work on the fence. The oddly hot heat of the spring afternoon was not making their work any easier for them as they continued to paint the fence.

It had taken them two hours to fix the two giant holes in the fence, and now they were working on the first coat of paint. So far only half of it was done.

Coop let out a long groan as his shoulders started to chafe from the constant motion. He rubbed at his shoulders sourly as he grumbled to himself about the ways he was going to hurt that cat.

_The next time I see that cat, I'm going to throw him so far it'll take a three day trip to bring him back._

As Coop continued to mumble to himself, he could practically feel the sun as though it was directly behind him. Coop dropped his brush in frustration and let himself fall back on his rear as more sweat started to drip down his brow.

"You okay, Coop?" Dennis asked from a few feet away.

"No. I think the sun is cooking my back."

"Ugh! I know what you mean," Dennis said as he took off his shirt and twisted it in his hands, causing small droplets of sweat to drip onto the grass. "I think if we keep working, we'll have enough sweat to water your lawn tomorrow." Dennis said with a small smile.

"I appreciate you trying to be funny, but I'm too hot to laugh," Coop said from his seat on the ground.

"Yeah...wait!" Dennis said looking off towards the house. His smile widened as he ran to the back of the house and grabbed the green water hose hanging from its hook. "Hey, Coop! Get over here!" Dennis yelled as he turned on the water, dousing himself with its refreshing chill.

"All right!" Coop yelled happily as he pushed himself up. He quickly rushed over to Dennis to get some water.

"Spray it here!" Coop yelled.

Dennis nodded his head before turning the hose around and spraying Coop dead in his chest. Coop sighed happily as the cold water hit his skin.

"That's great," Coop sighed happily. Dennis nodded in agreement and pointed the hose skyward, letting the water fall and spray over them both. They both sighed happily as the cold water cooled their burning skin. They both closed their eyes in relaxation as they enjoyed it.

Just as they both sat down to enjoy the water, Kat reentered the backyard. He glanced over at the two teens lying in the now wet grass.

 _Oh, no, no, no._  Kat thought with a slow shake of his head.  _We can't let them have too much fun now can we?_  Kat thought with a gleam in his eye.

Kat slowly crouched over towards them, making sure to not be seen. He quietly snuck across the backyard to all the way to the hose. Kat looked at the hose, and then back at the two relaxing teens.

 _Well this ought to be fun._ Kat thought as extended his claws.  _Bye-bye water._ Kat thought with a snicker. Coop's eyes popped open at the sound.

Just as Kat placed his claw on the rubber of the hose, Coop's head whipped around to see him.

"KAT!" Coop yelled as he pushed himself up.

_Too late._

Kat smiled evilly as he swiped his claw across the hose, the cutting right at the connecting line between the house and the hose.

_Oh no. No more water._

Kat thought, smirked evilly as he dodged Coop's first kick. Using Coop's foot, Kat lift himself into the air, easily flipped himself over Coop's head and landed behind them.

Kat watched in amusement as Coop quickly turned around to face him. Kat fell back and swiftly swept his foot across the grass, instantly knocking Coop to the ground.

Just as Coop's back hit the grass Kat's ear twitched slightly and he quickly turned his head to see Dennis trying to make a grab at him. Easily sidestepping him, Kat grabbed Dennis by his yellow jacket and swung him around to run headfirst into Coop, slamming them dead into each other.

Kat watched is Coop and Dennis disastrously tried to untangle themselves from each other. They looked complete idiots the way they struggled just to get up. Kat laughed softly to himself as he enjoyed their moment of stupidity.

_I could watch these imbeciles all day._

Just as the boys were just starting to get up, the back door slid open and Millie walked out into the yard. She stopped for a moment before squealing loudly and rushing over to grab her Mr. Kat.

"Mr. Kat your back!"

Kat groans quietly to himself as Millie squeezes him tightly to her chest. As Millie spins him around Coop and Dennis glare daggers at him. Kat smiles and sticks his tongue out to taunt them. Coop's face turns red with anger as continues to glare.

"Millie, take your stupid cat and leave," Coops said. Millie stops her spinning to glare lazily at him.

"Mr. Kat is not stupid. It's not his fault you wreck everything," Millie said and childishly sticks her tongue out at him. She looked around at the fence, at the now cut water hose.

"Daddy! Coop and Dennis aren't fixing the fence! And they broke the watering hose!" Millie yelled loudly as she ran back into the house. Kat snickered loudly at the dumbfounded looks on their faces as Millie carried him inside. Kat sent them one more taunting sneer before the back door closes.

Coop's eyes widen for a second only to squint into an icy glare as he stood there with his fist clenched at his sides. Right when he was about to yell out in frustration another yell interrupted him.

"COOP! DENNIS! You two better have a good explanation for this!" Mr. Burtonburger yelled from the upstairs window overlooking the yard.

Coop and Dennis both groaned loudly as they dragged their feet back into the house. More punishment on the way.

_Yippee..._


	6. Chapter 6

Kat laughed loudly from his seat at Millie's window as he watched Mr. Burtonburger stand over Coop and Dennis as they continued to paint the fence. Just moments ago he could hear him yelling at them both from the other room about how irresponsible they were and how much money it was costing him to fix their screw ups. Neither one of them had said anything, but Kat could just imagine the looks on their faces as Mr. Burtonburger continued to reprimand them. Kat almost jumped for joy when he heard their punishment. Grounded for a whole month! By the time they would even be allowed to step foot outside the house, him and Megan would already be good to go.

Kat merrily watched as Coop and Dennis continued to paint the fence under the hot evening sun. Of course, he didn't expect them to happily follow the rules when it came to him, but he could easily keep those two busy. And even better, if they get caught they'll be on total lockdown until school starts again.

Kat got up from his seat and climbed up onto his purple cat condo. After making sure Millie wasn't coming back yet, Kat pressed a button hidden in the wall and the elevator instantly activated. As the floor beneath him started to descend, a false floor slid into place overhead, blocking the view of the elevator hole.

The floor stopped at the two sliding doors at the entrance of his lab. Kat walked through and quickly made his way past the monitor (and the still broken chair) to his worktable against the right hand wall. Beside his work table sat a box of blueprint papers. He grabbed a blueprint, a pencil, and spread the paper across the table.

In front of him laid the blueprint for the surveillance cameras he planned to place around the landing site. He just needed to make a few more adjustments to his original design and he could finish building.

Then all he'd need was to  _borrow_ a few items from around the house.

**.** **.** **.**

Coop and Dennis groaned loudly as they trudged their way back into the house. It had taken them almost two hours painting that fence and then another one just to glue Ms. Munson's lawn gnomes back together. All of which was done with either Coop's dad or worse, Old Lady Munson watching over them like hawks.

Ms. Munson had yelled at them so many times in that one hour that Coop felt like his ears were about to fall off. Dennis's right ear was still ringing from when she yelled at him for not gluing the eyes on straight. As if those things were worth something.

"You know, I doubted it before but I really do think she loved those things more than people. I mean, have you noticed that she talks to those things like all the time?" Coop said as they dragged themselves up to his room.

"Yeah, but think about it. Who else is gonna talk to that old hag?"

"True. Gosh, now I feel sorry for the gnomes," Coop said, making Dennis laugh.

"Yeah. Kat breaking those lawn gnomes probably put them out of their misery. Shame we had to fix them and ruin it."

"Ugh! I almost forgot about that ugly rodent. As soon as I find him I'm tying him up with his own tail," Coop ranted as he opened the door. Dennis brushed by him and headed for his blue sleeping bag set up under the bed.

"I'll definitely help you with that. As soon as I'm done with my nap," Dennis said before he dropped himself face down on his sleeping bag.

Coop chuckled lightly at his friends antics and was about to climb up to his bed when he heard something metallic hit the floor.

"Huh?"

Coop turned around to his door and looked into the hallway to see Kat's tail disappear down the stairs. Coops eyes squinted into a glare.

"What are you up to?" He whispered to himself.

Coop grabbed a pair of binoculars and went over to his window. Outside he could see Kat with a bucket load of electronic stuff. Some cellphones, cameras, and some other metal stuff he couldn't identify.

"Not this time, Kat," Coop said as he rushed over to Dennis.

"Dennis, wake up! Kat's building something and I'm gonna need your backup."

"Huh? I... I'll be up in a second."

Coop grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him up right.

"Alright, I'm up!" Dennis yelled as he pushed himself up.

They both rushed down the stairs and through the living room to reach the backyard. Just as they were about to open the door something pulled them by the back of their shirts and they fell to the kitchen floor.

"Ow."

"And where do you two think you're going?" Mr. Burtonburger said overlooking them.

Coop blinked owlishly and opened his mouth to respond, but only a few words of idiotic babbling came out.

"Um... We were just..."

"Yeah, right. Coop when I said you boys were grounded I meant effective immediately, as in now. Now both of you head upstairs."

"But, dad-"

"No butts except yours upstairs!"

Coop whined soundly as he picked himself off the floor and headed back to his room with Dennis.

"Wow, your dad seems pretty mad this time," Dennis said as they ascended the stairs.

"Yeah, and he's definitely not gonna let us out of the house for the next month."

"Then what's your plan?"

Coop waited until they were inside his room to answer.

"Simple. We'll just wait until everyone's asleep, then we'll sneak out and nab him. With all the stuff he was carrying, whatever he's building's gonna take a while."

"Great. This gives me ample time to get back to my nap," Dennis said as he jumped face first back onto his sleeping bag. As he turned over to see Coop's dull expression he nervously scratched the back of his head.

"What? We're gonna need all of our energy to take him down. If we're going at night we ought to get as much sleep as we can now," Dennis said rolling back over on his stomach.

Coop rolled his eyes and headed for the ladder connecting to his bed. Yeah, he had to admit. A nap sounded pretty good right now.

_And as soon as I wake up I'm taking you down, Kat._

**.** **.** **.**

Kat smiled evilly to himself as he looked at the completely finished versions of his tiny spy cameras. With these he'd be able to see anyone who comes close, and with their shielding add ons, prevent them from coming any closer. Now all he'd need was to set them up.

Kat dumped the lot of them inside his bag and made off for the landing site.

**.** **.** **.**

Coop blinked blearily as he looked around the room.

_What time is it?_

He looked sideways to his alarm clock to see that it was 11:15 pm, and from the sounds of snoring coming from his dad's room, he could safely assume he was asleep.

_Time to get to work._

Coop jumped out of the bed to land right next to Dennis' sleeping bag. Coop bent down to shake his shoulder.

"Common Dennis, it's time to go."

Dennis looked up from where he was sprawled out on the floor.

"I'm up," Dennis said as he stretched out his arms. As Dennis pushed himself up from the floor, Coop went into his dresser drawer to pull out two night vision goggles. Passing one to Dennis he placed his on his face.

"Now, we head out."

Nodding his head, Dennis placed his googles over his eyes and followed Coop to the door. They stood at the doorway for a moment before slowly tiptoeing their way down the hall and to the stairs. It took a lot of patience for them to get down the stairs without stepping on any squeaky floorboards. Making their way through the kitchen Coop sent up a prayer that his dad didn't wake up and check on them in the middle of the night before he opened the backdoor and heading out into the backyard.

They both did a quick once over of the yard before heading into the dense vegetation that was the Bootsville forest.

"We'd better stay close. It's easy to get lost in all these trees," Coop said.

"Alright."

After walking a few yards from where they started, a cold wind blew past them. Dennis shivered as his dark yellow jacket blew in the breeze and the wind ruffled his dark hair. He quickly zipped his jacket as they continued on.

"Man it's chilly. Good thing I've got a jacket," Dennis said. "How does Kat deal with this weather? He's all naked."

"Don't know, but I hope he freezes," Coop said as he rubbed his hands together.

_Great, first it was hot, now it's cold. Ugh! Mother Nature must be having mood swings._

Just as Coop was going to continue on his inner ranting, the sound of a branch breaking caught his attention. He and Dennis both turned suddenly towards the sound. Just as they turned to look at it, the image of a small dark silhouette ran past them.

_KAT!_

**.** **.** **.**

Kat breathed a sigh of content as he placed the 4th of the 12 cameras. In the next few days he'd be sure to set up the rest of them, and then they'd be ready to activate. Just as he was climbing down from the tree he'd been in, the sound of distant footsteps grabbed his attention. As he looked off into their direction he could think of only two who would be out this late.

_Coop and Dennis._

Kat stealthily leaped from the tree and silently sprinted towards their direction. He stopped momentarily and looked around in a circle, his eyes having no problem in the dark of the night.

_Where?_

Closing his eyes he listened intently for the sounds of their footsteps. It only took a few moments for him to find them. He quickly darted off in their direction, only to find them a little bit away. He crouched down low as he watched them from the cover of the bushes.

As he watched them search for him a fun little idea popped into his head.

_Why don't I get them good and lost?_

Kat rose from the bush and quickly darted past them, making sure to step on a branch as he did so. Just as he thought, the branch made a loud cracking noise as he passed and the two morons both turned to look in its direction.

Kat laughed silently from the bushes as he saw them tense. He could practically smell the perspiration coming off them.

Kat looked off into the deeper parts of the forest, far away off from the house, and the direction of the landing sight.

_Perfect. Those two morons will be so lost they won't find their way home until morning._

Kat grinned to himself as he stepped out of the bushes and ran past them again. All he needed was to get their attention and they would chase after him.

"There he is!" Coop yelled.

Kat snickered loudly as he ran off into the deeper parts of the forest, with Coop and Dennis running after him.

_Too easy._

Kat ran at a slow pace, making sure to keep himself in their sights only enough to continue the chase. He could hear the huffing and puffing of their breathes as he continued to bait them further into the forest. They had been running straight for who knows how long now, and those two were definitely out of it. Seeing as they were about to pass out anyway, Kat decided that this was definitely far enough to keep them out of his face for a while.

After waiting for the right moment, Kat sped up suddenly and made a quick right turn out of their sights, the power of his turn causing a cloud of dirt to rise and blind them momentarily. As they spluttered and coughed Kat climbed high up into a tree and watched as they tried to find him again, as useless as that was.

Kat smirked as he looked up into the sky. The stars were disappearing, meaning that by the time those two got home the sun would be high up in the sky.

Looking back down, he could see the anger and frustration glowing in their eyes as they realized that they've been tricked. Kat could only laugh at the thought of how angry they'd be once they realize that they'd been up all night.

Taking one last glance towards the teenage duo, Kat swiftly hopped from one tree to another and headed back to the Burtonburger household. There was a soft little cat bed waiting there for him.


	7. Chapter 7

_Creak, creak, creak..._

Kat rolled over in his bed as the sound of creaking floorboards stirred him awake. Yawning, he stretched his sleepy limbs and lifted himself up to look out the window. The sun had just peeked from underneath the horizon and was making its way overhead. Realizing what time it must be, he allowed himself to curl back up and go to sleep. He knew exactly who it was.

Kat smirked as his ears picked up on the sounds of twin groans and shortly after, the sound of a door opening and closing.

Seeing what time it was, those footsteps were no doubt the sounds of two tired and annoyed teenagers finally making their way back into the house. As funny as it was, he had to give them credit. They got back sooner than he thought.

_I guess they have more than two brain cells after all._

Laughing softly, Kat allowed himself to fall back to sleep. Millie would be waking up in a few more hours and he needed all his energy to deal with her.

**.** **.** **.**

Coop felt like the full force of gravity was dragging him down as they finally trudged their way back into the house. It had taken them hours to find their way back home and by the time they could see the light of the neighboring houses it felt like his body was about to give out. They didn't even try to be discrete as they dragged themselves up the stairs and back to his bedroom. Each time he lifted his legs it felt like lifting dumbbells, and it sure sounded like it as every step they took caused an eery squeak to come from the floorboards.

Coop sighed as a particularly loud squeak accompanied his last step.

_Oh well._

It didn't matter. Everyone was probably too deep in sleep to hear them anyway, and at this point of exhaustion he really didn't care.

Once they finally reached the last step Coop staggered his way to his bedroom door and fumbled with the doorknob. Once he was able to finally twist the knob he pushed the door open and smiled sleepily at the site of his bed. Though his smile quickly turned into a frown at the site of his ladder. All of a sudden that ladder looked like the peak of a skyscraper.

 _Like I'm climbing up that. Ugh, why'd I have to get a bed with a ladder?_ Coop thought as he walked towards it.

Coop groaned dejectedly as he reached up for his bed sheets and threw them on the floor. He'd only looked at the makeshift pallet for a moment before allowing his body to drop face first into it.

Even with the hardness of the floor it felt wonderful for him to lie still for a while.

He'd only just heard Dennis getting into his sleeping bag a few feet away before drifting off to sleep.

**.** **.** **.**

"Coop! Dennis! Get up, it's time for breakfast!"

Coop groaned as the sound of his sister's voice broke through his sleep.

_Five more minutes..._

As he rolled over lazily, Coop's hand brushed against the rough surface of his bedroom carpet.

_Huh?_

Dizzily, he pushed himself into a seated position and looked around.

_Why am I on the floor?_

Lifting himself up, Coop stretched out his limbs and staggered as a throbbing ache ran through his legs. He fell back, landing back on the bed sheets as his tired body begged him to lay down. Looking down at his dirty shoes he recalled what happened in the forest.

_Oh yeah. Now I remember._

Coop rubbed at his sore legs for a few minutes before pushing himself back up again. It took him a moment to regain his balance, but after his third try he was able to stand somewhat straight.

Painfully, he walked to his door and out into the hallway. Maybe a shower would help his aching muscles.

**.** **.** **.**

Kat smiled as a he heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs. Each footstep was accompanied by a low groan.

Kat turned his head from his morning bowl of frisky bits to watch as Coop and Dennis slowly walked into the kitchen. They both stopped at the entry and slumped against the walls tiredly.

Mr. Burtonburger looked up from his bowl of cereal and frowned at the sight of them.

"Why do you two look like you've slept on a bunch of rocks?"

Coop pushed himself off the wall, trying to look a bit less wore out.

"We just didn't sleep well," Coop said with what he thought was an energized voice. "What's for breakfast?" He said, quickly changing the subject.

Mr. Burtonburger gave him an unbelieving stare but thankfully didn't ask any questions as the boys moved to sit at the table.

"Just cereal, but from the way you two look it might be best to go with a cup of coffee," He said as he pushed two bowls and a box of cereal towards them.

"We'll be okay, dad," Coop said as he poured some cereal into his bowl.

"Yeah, Mr. Burtonburger. One bad night's sleep isn't gonna kill us." Dennis said as Coop passed him the box.

Mr. Burtonburger looked unamused at their droopy eyes for a moment before going on to a different subject.

"So, Dennis how long did your dad say he'd be at his little techno fest?"

"Oh," Dennis said as he blinked a few times. "He said he'd be back by the end of spring break."

"Okay then, but still make sure to call him," Mr. Burtonburger said as he turned to refill his coffee cup. "Wouldn't want him to worry,"

Just as Mr. Burtonburger sat back down at the table he noticed that both of the boys had fallen asleep in their cereal.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Kat laughed as he watched the boys trudge their way back up the stairs. Bits of cereal were still stuck in their hair from breakfast.

_They'll no doubt be asleep for a few hours._

Kat glanced over at the slightly opened back door.

_Now's my chance!_

Kat looked up at Millie to make sure she was still eating before slipping his way past her and out into the backyard.

Kat smiled as he ran across the grass and into the dense bushes. He picked up his speed and headed straight for the Bootsville forest.

 _Only two more days._ Kat thought with a jolt of excitement as he swiftly ran past bushes and trees. He was so busy thinking about seeing his sister that he hardly noticed when his paws had hit the old path leading to the clearing.

Kat blinked owlishly for a moment, only now noticing how quickly he had made it to his destination. Frowning at his distractedness, Kat scanned the nearby trees to find where he had hidden his bag of spy cameras.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Coop woke up with a start as his dream went from sweet to terrifying. He placed his hand over his chest as his heart started to pound. He quickly glanced around him and calmed as he realized that he was only in his room.

_Damn!_

Coop hopped off his bed and onto the floor as his eyes locked onto his clock. It was already 12:40 in the afternoon.

_Kat's no doubt snuck off by now! Dangit! If we hadn't have fallen asleep we could have followed him!_

Coop kicked the leg of his bed in frustration and immediately regretted it as the nerves in his foot screamed in pain.

"OW, OW, OW!" Coop yelled as he bounced on one foot. Dennis, who was laying just a few feet away looked up at him groggily.

"Common Coop, do you have to be so loud? It's like two in the morning," Dennis said as he rolled onto his opposite side.

"No Dennis it's 12:40 in the afternoon! We have to get up and find out what Kat is up to!" Coop bent over and tried to pull at Dennis' sleep bag, but was greeted with loud groans of complaint.

"If it's this late then we probably missed him anyway," Dennis mumbled.

"Yeah but we could still retrace our steps back to where we last saw him. If we catch him coming back to the house we can see which direction he's been coming from," Coop explained as he continued to pull on the sleeping bag. He was about to give one last hard pull when Dennis sat up suddenly and leveled him with a glare. It probably would have looked a bit more threatening if part of his hair wasn't sticking up.

"Alright, but how are we gonna sneak past your dad? Cause there's no way we're climbing out of your second floor window,"

"Got it covered."

Dennis was about to ask exactly what he meant by covered when he noticed the blankets that Coop were starting to tie together. Coop turned around with a smile on his face.

"Makeshift rope," he said simply.

Dennis groaned as he realized that he definitely wasn't getting back to sleep soon.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Kat smiled proudly as he glanced around the clearing. He had successfully put up 6 more cameras. Now he only needed to set up two more and they'd be ready for business. He was just about to do a little victory dance when he noticed that the sun, while still high, had gotten lower than expected. He'd have to save the last two for later and get back to Millie. She'd probably try to put a leash on him if she noticed he was gone for too long.

Kat gracefully hopped from the branch he had been sitting on to the forest floor and smiled. If all goes well he may be able to set the cameras up later on today. With that thought he happily walked back down the path and towards the house. He was going to reward himself by begging for an extra bowl of frisky bits for dinner.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

"Coop, was it really necessary for us to-"

"Shh!"

Coop quickly placed his hand over Dennis' mouth as he spied Kat walk under the tree they were hiding in in the backyard. He waited for Kat to get inside the house before removing his hand. Coop turned to Dennis and signaled for him to follow.

"Let's find out what the rodent's been up to."


	8. Chapter 8

Dennis sighed and looked over at Coop, who's excited spirit seemingly hadn't died down yet. At this point they'd have to have been walking for two hours now and they still hadn't seen a trace of Kat's handiwork. At this point Dennis was starting to wonder if this was all some sort of trick to get them walking lost through the forest again.

He was about to tell Coop they should go back when he looked around and noticed something different about their surroundings. The trees seemed to be branching out. The area was becoming more open and the grass becoming taller. With the thought of a possible destination at hand he sped up the pace, Coop practically running right along with him. Running forward they soon found themselves in a wide open area with tall grass, but nothing else.

Spinning around they tried to find anything that could point to this being Kat's hideout, but no matter where they looked the area remained empty, and the sun going down didn't make seeing any easier for them.

"I swear if this is some sort of trick of his-"

"No! I have a feeling about this Dennis. I'm sure we have the right place," Coop looked around one more time before turning to his skeptical friend. "Let's take a closer look around before we go. If we don't find anything then we can just go back home and slip in before my dad sees." Coop said placing a hand on Dennis shoulder and trying to give a confident smile.

Dennis rolled his eyes but agreed anyway. Even if he did think this was going to be a fruitless effort he couldn't leave Coop hanging in good conscious.

Silently they both walked a few yards distance away and started searching.

***Time Skip 40mins***

Coop sighed as he moved from the area he had been searching to a few yards away to search again. It was starting to get dark out and at this rate if they didn't find something soon his dad will realize their absence before they get home. Just as he was about to lose steam the image of Kat's snickering face came into his head and he animatedly continued with his searching.

Dennis on the other hand had been losing steam for quite some time now and though he would usually be a lot more eager to find some of Kat's work and unravel another diabolical scheme he was running low on energy and didn't have as long lasting a battery as Coop.

"You doing okay Dennis?" Coop called from a few yards away searching through the grass.

"Yeah, I-I just need to rest for a bit," Dennis replied as he went to lean against a tree only to draw away from it with a loud 'ouch!' as his hand made contact with something very small and hard. Squinting at his palm he lifted it closer up to the fading sunlight and saw what almost looked like… a metal ladybug, albeit a now broken one.

"Uh, Coop," Dennis said staring wide eyed at his hand. "I think I found something."

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Kat jumped up startled from his nap as the sound of loud beeping sound came from his monitor. He'd almost thought it was the Emperor. He leaned back in his chair and sighed with relief when he saw that it was only an alert from the landing spot… THE LANDING SPOT?!

Kat immediately jumped out of his chair and ran to the monitor. One of his surveillance cameras had stopped working! Quickly pressing some keys on his monitor nine different images of the landing sight appeared on the screen. All featuring two certain human pest.

Kat growled deep from his chest before running on all fours out of his lab and Millie's room. Just as he was about to run downstairs towards the backyard he stopped and glanced at Coop's bedroom door and then at Mr. Burtonburger's. A dark smile formed on his face as he imagined the hell those pest were about to go through.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Burt Burgonburger woke up with a start as a loud crashing sound rang through his ears. He quickly jumped out of bed and hyperly looked around his room for the source of the noise. He was about to dismiss the sound as a dream when he heard another one, seemingly coming from out in the hallway.

He quickly ran to his door and slowly opened it to peak out into the hall. Not five seconds later he heard another noise, this time what sounded like sneakered feet running across carpet. As the sound continued he quickly walked across the floor towards Coop's room, where the noise seemed to be coming from.

"Coop, stop whatever you and Dennis are doing and go to bed." He yelled as he opened the door, only to find an empty room with an open window.

"COOP?!"

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Coop and Dennis moved quickly as they tried to find more of the tiny metal bugs. Now knowing what to look for they'd already found and smashed two others. Each placed on a different part of a different tree at the edges of the clearing. Just as they were about to round off to the other end clearing they looked up in surprise as a loud hiss sounded overhead.

Before Coop could dodge Kat came flying out of a tree and had tackled him to the ground. They rolled around for a few seconds, kicking, scratching, and punching at each other as they did so. Just as Coop thought he had gotten the upper hand, after pinning Kat to the ground with Dennis running up to them with a large branch, Kat had kicked him in his stomach and shoved him a good six feet away before standing and narrowly ducking Dennis's attack. Before either of them could attack again Kat swiftly rushed towards Coop, jumped over his head to the forest floor and continued running back in the direction of the house.

Coop let out a loud growl as he pushed himself up and ran after Kat, Dennis running only a few feet behind him.

Coop breathed hard through his mouth as he tried to keep up with Kat's swift movements. Kat was running through the trees like it was nothing, while Coop had to work extra hard to keep up while not running into anything. He was concentrating so hard on catching Kat that he didn't hear Dennis shouting at him from behind.

"Coop!" Dennis yelled to no avail.

_Dammit! He's trying to lead us away from the clearing!_

Dennis stopped in his tracks and looked between the clearing they had just came from and back at Coop who was getting further and further away. Dennis hurriedly searched his pockets for something and pulled out a bunched up piece of paper. Not having anything to write with, he quickly grabbed a muddy trig nearby.

_Okay, okay, okay. I-if the sun was setting in that direction and the house is over there then._

He hurriedly scribbled his best guess at a direction and stuffed it back into his pocket. If he didn't catch up with Coop and Kat he'd have to find his own way home.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Mr. Burtonburger frantically shined his flashlight around the surrounding area as he searched for the boys. He had been following what looked to be vague footprints for half an hour now and couldn't make out where to go next.

"Coop! Dennis!"

He listened closely but only the sound of his echoing voice greeted him. Sighing, he was about to take out his phone and call the police when he heard a sound in the distance. Running towards it he shined his flashlight back and forth as he continued to call out their names.

As he ran the sound started to become clearer and he recognized it as the sound of running feet. All of a sudden images of every crazy incident his son had ever been in flashed through his mind and his heart started to race. He ran as fast as he could towards what he hoped was the boys. The sound was getting louder and louder and just as he thought he was close there was a flash of something running past him and he suddenly slammed into something, sending him and that something- someone- flying back.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Coop's head was spinning as the flash of a bright light blinded him. He quickly stood up with a groan as he prepared for whatever attack Kat was about to throw, only to see his dad lifting himself off the forest floor. Coop blinked owlishly at his dad before stuttering out his confusion.

"D-Dad!? What are you doing out here?" Coop said looking left and right for any sign of Kat. He quickly looked back at his dad and blanched at the look of total rage on his face.

"What am I doing here?" Burt said in a low voice and Coop's stomach dropped. He's never seen his dad get that red. " _ **What am**_   _ **I doing here?!**_ " He yelled out.

"What  _exactly_  are  _you two_  doing here, and you'd better have a  _very good reason_." He said again in that low voice as he shined his light on Coop and then Dennis who had just come into his line of sight.

"W-we, I-I-I... w-w-we were just..." Coop stuttered out but then stopped as he had no idea what to say.

"You were just disobeying  _everything_  I told you, running through the forest  _at night_ , and without  _any_  supervision." Burt said slowly drawing out each accusation. He looked at the boys pale faces for a few second longer before pointing his flashlight back in the direction of the house and ordering them to walk, his shoulders and muscled tense. The boys could see the was he tightly held the light, on the verge of shaking.

No one said anything as they slowly made their way back in the direction of the house. The boys stomachs filled with lead as they felt Mr. Burtonburger's glare on their backs.


	9. Chapter 9

Mr. Burtonburger closed the door behind them as Millie and Ms. Munson came peeking in from the living room where they'd been sitting. Burt nodded his head at Ms. Munson before stepping out of the way, allowing her to exit. As she walked past she sneered at the two boys but it went unnoticed as they both had their eyes firmly on Coop's dad.

"Millie sweetie, go upstairs to your room and go to sleep." Burt asked quietly. Sensing the tension in the room Millie didn't bother protesting and quietly made her way up the stairs. Burt watched her go. There was the sound of a long creak then a soft click. He then lowered his eyes to the floor and breathed deeply through his nose.

"Sit down," He said pointing to the kitchen table. The boys slowly took their seats as they waited for him to continue. Finally, after a long moment of deep breathing he made eye contact with them.

"Never have I felt so disrespected as I do now, and  _never_  have I felt so disappointed in you two." He said standing over them as they sat, looking dejectedly at the table. Burt placed two fingers at his temples and let out a long breath of air.

"Why do you think I grounded you two?"

Coop and Dennis suddenly looked up in confusion. After waiting another few seconds they figured he expected an answer. Dennis, seeing Coop's stricken face decided to answer.

"Because we broke Ms. Munson's fence?" Dennis whispered.

"No. I grounded you two because I didn't trust you to not do something so dangerous again. I wanted you to show me that you could be trusted to follow my orders and not do something crazy for just two weeks, and you couldn't even do that," He said. "As I was running all I could think of was all the things you two had gotten yourselves into in the past year, and I was terrified. I never thought that I would have to put restrictions on you in order to keep you safe."

"I want you both to be safe more than anything else, and that means both of you." He said, his eyes locking with Dennis's. "When you two ran into that forest did you even think of all the things that could happen to you? It had already been getting dark. You could have gotten lost, and what if I wasn't the one who found you? For all you know there could have been a psycho hiding out there. You could have been killed!" There was a long pause as Burt rubbed a hand down his face.

"From now on neither of you are allowed to leave the house unless me or another adult is watching you. That includes being out in the backyard."

Coop's eyes widened and his mouth opened as if to protest, but quickly shut as he looked at his dad's face.

"Dennis, I'll be calling your father about this, and we'll  _both_  be telling him about what happened. After the break is over he'll decide what your punishment is. Coop, you go upstairs to your room while Dennis and I call his father."

With that Burt walked over to the house phone and started dialing the number to Mr. Chan's hotel in China.

Coop stood up slowly from the table and made his way upstairs. Even without looking back he could feel his dad's disappointed gaze on him.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Coop had didn't look down as he heard Dennis walk back into the room, so he didn't see how pale his skin had gotten. Without saying anything Dennis climbed into his sleeping bag and zipped it as Coop turned out the lights.

Coop laid awake as a boulder of guilt laid on his chest.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Kat groaned as he heard the sound of Millie's excited chatter. Why the girl enjoyed mornings so much was beyond him. Rolling onto his side he tried to go back asleep, but to no avail. She was getting closer and he thought he heard something about  _another_  tea party.

Once again he groaned as he was picked up from his place on his cat bed and stuffed into another hideous little dress. He was too tired to even try to escape. He had been up all night trying to reposition his robots so the shield and cameras would still work. With there being less camera bugs to add energy to it, the shield they create may not be as strong. He had to reposition all of them so the shield wouldn't be so spread out it wouldn't work, and so the cameras would still get a wide enough view of the area.

Megan was coming tomorrow, he didn't have time to build any more robots, so that would have to do, and even though he was sure they would still work he couldn't get this little niggling out of his head saying he should worry.

Of course he didn't have much time to think that over as Millie started skipping down the stairs, his body being shaken up and down as her little body hopped down each step. He was about to try and break free when she suddenly stopped at the edge of the kitchen. Looking up from her arms he noticed that the boys were already sitting at the table with Mr. Burtonburger. There was an thick silence as all of them seemed to not want to look at each other.

He could feel Millie's arms tense up around him and when he looked up he noticed how upset she looked. Noticing his eyes on her she looked back down at him and for a moment a splinter of guilt stuck him in the chest, from what he didn't want to think of, but as soon as it was there it was gone again. Her expression changed to a happy one, albeit a bit forced.

Millie continued to skip into the kitchen with a smile and with her right arm grabbed a bowl of cereal and the box of frosted flakes. All the while still holding Mr. Kat.

"Good morning everyone!" Millie said with as much pep as she could muster. The others glanced at her, and while her father had given her a small smile it didn't seem to be the reaction she was hoping for.

"Daddy while you were out Ms. Munson taught me a new knitting technique!" She said as she hopped into her seat, placing her food on the table and Mr. Kat in her lap. That unfortunately seemed to be the wrong thing to say as both the boys eyes went back down to their bowls. Kat raised an eyebrow at this as neither of the boys had even commented on the fact that he was sitting so close to them as they ate their breakfast. Usually the first thing she'd do is put him down so he could eat his own.

Still trying to uplift the mood, Millie smiled up at her daddy as she poured her cereal.

"Daddy, me and Mr. Kat are gonna have a tea party in the backyard. Do you want to be our special guest?" She said pouring her milk, her other hand resting on Kat. He could feel that tenseness in her arm again.

Mr. Burtonburger's smile seemed a lot more genuine as he agreed and Millie's face lit up as she continued to eat her cereal. She slowly took her hand off Mr. Kat's back and he felt her body relax. Kat looked up as she did so, wondering if she was feeling better now that her father had agreed to join them in what will probably be another ridiculously hot tea party.

He scowled to himself as that feeling of guilt still sat in his chest.

" _She probably just wanted another play mate."_  He thought.

" _Besides, at least this time,"_  He thought looking over at the boy's dejected faces. " _there won't be any annoying little heroes there to bother me."_

Kat smiled at his own reasoning and allowed himself to continue resting on Millie's lap as she ate her breakfast. He would get up and go to his bowl, he thought, but the dress was a bit too uncomfortable to walk in anyway.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Kat scowled as he sat in the, once again, hot sun drinking orange juice out of a tea cup. Of course Millie was a ball of chattering energy as usual. She continued to keep up the conversation between herself and her father, occasionally asked Kat for his opinion, to which he would meow softly as though he had really been paying attention to what she was saying.

Mr. Burtonburger seemed to have gotten a bit more cheerful as he listen to Millie chatter on about whatever mundane thing she had been talking about.

"Oh daddy before we finish, I had almost forgot. What do you think of Mr. Kat's new dress?" Millie said with a glowing smile as she waved a hand towards the irritated feline. Kat tried not to glare as Mr. Burtonburger seemed to be stuck between holding in a snicker and trying not to look too uncomfortable.

"Ah, well, I think it's very pretty sweetie, but don't you think Mr. Kat should wear something a bit less hot in this weather, or maybe something for a boy? He is a  _Mr._  Kat after all." Burt said a bit nervously as he looked between his daughter and the obviously uncomfortable Mr. Kat.

 _Or maybe we could skip the dress up altogether._  Kat thought with an unhidden scowl.

Millie's brow furrowed as she looked over Kat's outfit a bit more. She hummed to herself a bit before her face broke out into another large smile.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! I know! I'll make him a little sailor's outfit. He'd look so cute in it!" Millie said practically bouncing in her chair. Mr. Burtonburger smiled happily at her as he helped her pick up the little cups and plates.

"That sounds great sweetie. I'm sure he'll look handsome in it," Burt said picking up the last of the tea set and putting it away. "While you do that, I have to go set up some things. Promise you'll show me your design once you're done?"

Millie nodded.

"Great, and you know, I could use a little company as I get my work done. You mind if I borrow Mr. Kat for a bit?"

"No problem daddy. I already have all of Mr. Kat's measurements." Millie said lifting the dress up and over Kat's head before petting him. "Have fun with daddy!"

And with that she was running back into the house and upstairs to her room. Burt smiled in her direction before looking down at the purple feline.

"I'm sure you're happy to get out of that dress. I suggest you get a move on before she decides to come back and put you in something else." Burt said with a laugh as he petted Kat on the head.

Kat waited until Mr. Burtonburger had walked into the living room to let out a sigh of relief.

Quietly he made his way back upstairs and to Millie's door. If he could just sneak past her he could slip through and get into his lab. Luckily in her excitement she hadn't fully closed the door.

Keeping low to the floor he slipped underneath the bed and waited for her to turn her back so he could jump into his cat condo. Once she did he quickly raced up the little kitty tower and into the hidden elevator.

Once inside he let himself relax. Finally the one place no one could bother him.

Sitting down in his chair he typed in the dial code for his sister's ship. After a few rings she picked up and from his side of the monitor he could see that she was covered in oil and fuel stains.

"I see someone's still working." Kat commented. Megan smiled as she grabbed a cloth and wiped herself with it.

"Just taking a break actually. Nothing's wrong is it?" Megan asked. Kat gasped dramatically as he placed a paw over his heart.

"You mean I can't simply call to check in on my beloved little sister?! Oh, how you wound me!"

Megan smirked as he continued to act offended.

"Well considering that you hardly call to begin with it's all I can assume,"

"Okay, I get it. I should call more often," He said with a playful roll of his eyes. "Anyway I'm assuming everything's okay on your end? All set to land tomorrow?"

"Yes, he of little faith. I am completely capable of flying and landing my own ship without hurting myself. Though I may have hit a few pedestrians on my way here." She said with a smirk.

"Haha. Well, hopefully they won't sue." Kat said with a smile, one that faded as his mind wandered back to this morning. It made him think about something.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Megan asked with a raised eyebrow. Hopefully he won't try to dodge this question like he does the others.

"Huh? Oh, I was thinking about something that happened this morning. I don't know why but it reminded me of something. I just can't remember what that something is."

"Well, l what happened?" She asked, wiping the last of the oil off her face.

Kat looked up amused as she frowned at the stain in her work shirt.

"I had tricked moron 1 and moron 2 into getting into more trouble so they'd stay out of my way. Of course it worked and they are in even more crap than they were before, but this time was different. Usually he, the father, would just yell at them and give them more punishment. This time it's like they're still stuck on it. The father and twin imbeciles were acting all quiet this morning and wouldn't look at each other." He scoffed as he thought back on it. "I wouldn't even care if not for the fact that Millie seemed upset about it. She wouldn't let me go to eat my food. She just held on to me as she ate and tried to draw them into conversation... I can't put my finger on it but it felt familiar and… uncomfortable."

Kat continued to talk about this morning with an off look in his eyes as he tried to remember where that feeling had come from, all the while leaving out the bit about feeling guilty. It was probably not even guilt, he reasoned, probably just had to do with hunger or something.

Megan listened silently and took a moment to think before responding.

"Well, it's probably because you have experience pissing off an adult. Remember how you'd get on Mini's last nerve. After an argument you two would barely look at each other the next day." Megan said passing the cloth from one paw to the other. "It wasn't that fun to be around."

Kat let his eyes drift down as that feeling of guilt came back. Seeing the look on her brother's face she quickly put on a smile.

"So, no frilly hat today?" Megan said with a smirk. Kat glared up at his sister and in response she stuck out her tongue.

The rest of the conversation consisted of random talks about their inventions, old times, and Megan asking questions about Earth. Kat had gotten more cheerful as the talk went on until the , and soon they'll be able to talk like this more often. Soon he would be done with this planet.


	10. Chapter 10

(The next day, at 2pm)

Kat smiled to himself as he watched from his seat on Millie's lap, her happily moving her little piece on the gameboard.

"Your turn Coop!" She said happily. Coop rolled his eyes as he unenthusiastically rolled the dice and moved his piece across the board.

This was Millie's new attempt at cheering everyone up. Playing a board game. Coop and Dennis had tried to get out of it, but seeing the way Millie had been pouting at them they had conceded to her demands.

Kat was content in sitting in her lap as they played the game. Especially since he had a clear view of the little light on the side of his food dish.

It only took a few more minutes of waiting for the light to flash green and with that he sneakily climbed off Millie's lap and out the back door, making sure not to make a single sound that would draw any unwanted eyes.

As soon as the door was closed he made a break for it towards the landing site. Megan would be landing soon and there was no way he was going to be late. With more speed then he had used in a while, he cut through the air and past the trees as he rushed to see his sister.

. Time Skip .

Kat sat with impatient excitement as he waited for Megan's ship to land. Just as he was about to try calling her to see what was taking so long there was a soft humming sound and rush of wind blew through the grass. Looking up he saw a small purple ship hovering overhead.

Kat's face broke out into a huge smile as he saw Megan's ship land and a ramp extended itself from the door to the ground. Kat barely had time to run up to the ramp before the door opened and Megan came rushing out of the ship and grabbed him in a one armed hug.

"Mmm! I missed strangling you with hugs!" Megan said.

"I missed seeing you too." Kat said almost tripping as Megan dragged him up the ramp and into her ship.

"I have something really exciting to show you!"

As she pulled him to the far side of the room he tried his best to get a look at his surroundings. It was one large round room with various tools and equipment on one side, furthest from the door, and a bed and eating area on the other. He barely had time to make a joke about how messy the place was when she suddenly stopped in front of a large something or other being covered by a sheet.

"Now that I've successfully pulled your arm out of it's socket, I would like to introduce to you," She said, pausing for dramatic effect. "The Gene Splicer!"

Megan pulled off the sheet to reveal a machine consisting of a large control panel sitting in front of a much larger and wider metal container with glass doors and what seemed to be a metal pad on its floor. On its inside was what looked like a large round lights on every side of the box but the doors.

Kat allowed Megan to pull him up to the control panel and explained the machine.

"The Gene Splicer does exactly as the name suggest. It splices genes. Except instead of just mixing the dna, you can control what physical and biological features the results have. For example, if you wanted to have a creature with the legs of a cheetah, the body of a gorilla, and the venom of a snake, you can! You can just pick and choose what kind of creature you want to make and it'll do it. Well, provided you have those animals on hand that is." She said with a rush of excitement. She spun around to face him and Kat was greeted with a blinding smile.

"What do you think!?"

Kat stared dumbly at her for a few moments before his mouth opened, spewing all kinds of technical questions on how it worked, what it ran on, and how long it took her to put together. Megan answered all of them with the same amount of enthusiasm. They went on like this for ten whole minutes or so before they stopped to take a breath.

"How much longer until it's fully functional?" Kat asked in between breaths.

"Well, that's the bad part. I had ran into a bit of trouble on the way here and my ship got tossed around. Now don't worry. It wasn't anything serious, but with the ship being shook back and forth my stuff got thrown around and things got damaged." She said waving a paw at the messy room. "I need to replace a few parts as well as finish what I hadn't before."

"Oh Aiden, I can't wait until I get this thing up and running." Megan said as she lightly placed her paws on the control panel. Kat smiled at her obvious pride until he noticed something a bit peculiar about her right paw. Squinting at it he now noticed it was swollen and a few shades darker.

"What happened to your wrist?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean this." She said looking down at it. "That issue I mentioned occurred while I was working on this. When the ship got jostled back and forth my paw had gotten caught in between some parts. Hurt like hell pulling it out." She explained with a shrug.

"What exactly was this issue?" Kat asked.

"Remember those pedestrians I said I hit? Well, they were in a ship, and I wasn't hitting as much as shooting at them."

"Pardon?" Kat asked. Megan sneered and started to explain.

"Ah, some assholes had rear ended my ship, and when I told them off they decided to bash into me some more. Bastards didn't realize I had weapons on the ship." Megan said with a toothy smirk. "Let's just say they are now somewhere in the middle of random space without a ride home."

Kat laughed but it faltered a bit as he thought of her injured paw. Megan though, seemed unfazed.

"Anyway, here's the important thing. Will you help me finish it? I've got the rest of the parts coming in and I need some help putting it all together, especially with the programming parts. You were always better at that than me." Megan with a big grin.

Kat hesitated for a moment, thinking of Megan trying to work on things (especially on something as complicated as this must be) with her injured paw, and he knew she would. He also knew he couldn't say anything because she'd just brush it off. That's when an idea came to mind.

"Definitely. You think I'd miss out on this! But I have one question."

"Yeah?"

"You still interested in seeing where I've been staying for the last year?"

"Well, yeah! All I've seen are pictures and the inside of your lab."

"Then it's settled. You come and live with me at the human's house while we finish the parts for 'The Splicer'." Kat said with a smirk. Megan's eyes were huge with excitement at the idea of exploring the human home.

"Yes!" Megan yelled.

"Good." He said turning around and headed for the exist. "Follow me."

. . .

Millie smiled as she moved her piece to the end of the board, and with that she pumped her fist in the air and listened to the boy's groans of frustration.

"You have to be cheating somehow. How do you win every time?" Dennis asked as he looked over the board.

"It's not cheating when you have an awesome lucky charm like me." Millie said as she helped her daddy pick up the die that had fell onto the floor.

"What lucky charm?" Dennis asked.

"Why Mr. Kat of course." Millie answered, then stuck her tongue out as Dennis gave her an eye roll.

"I think I'd rather have a rabbit's foot."

"Yeah." Coop said as he passed his dad the box. "At least the rabbit's foot doesn't look like a naked rat."

"Says you. Mr. Kat happens to be the most handsome cat on the block, and once I finish making his new outfit he'll look even better."

"Well, if he's your good luck charm." Dennis said looking around the kitchen. "Then where's he at?"

Millie's eyes widened as she glanced around the kitchen but didn't see him.

"He probably ran after hearing about the outfit." Coop whispered to Dennis at the table. Millie turned around and gave them both a glare before heading towards the door.

"Daddy, I'm gonna look in the backyard for Mr. Kat." Millie said. Burt looked up from where he was putting away the board game to give her a thumbs up.

"Okay, just make sure not to leave the backyard."

"Alright."

Millie slid the door opened and walked to the middle of the yard, just a few yards away from the edge of the forrest.

"Mr. Kat! MR. KAAAT!" She yelled as her head looked back and forth across the yard. She was about to yell again when a soft meow interrupted her. Looking over at a couple of bushes she noticed her purple kitty crawling out from them. Her face broke out into a big smile as she ran over to him.

"Mr. Kat, there you are! Where have you b-" Millie stopped short as out of the bushes next to Mr. Kat emerged another feline. Millie gasped as a cat of the same breed came out from the bushes and walked up beside him. With its right paw lifted up, it slowly limped its way towards her, all the while yowling in pain. Millie gasped again as she knelt down in front of the small cat. It was smaller than her Mr. Kat, definitely not something that could put up a fight. Another animal must have hurt it!

Millie turned on her heel and dashed back into the house, startling the others.

. . .

Coop watched with a start as his sister zoomed in from the back door and rushed up the stairs. He was about to ask what was going on when he heard the sound of the bathroom door being opened.

"I'm going to go check on Millie. You boys stay here." Burt said as he made his way up the stairs.

Coop looked over at Dennis and gave a shrug. She may be his sister but trying to understand her mood swings was like trying to solve a murder mystery.

Getting up from the table they both walked over to the door and looked out over the lawn. Coop's eyes practically popped out of his head from what he saw.

"What the-?!" Dennis exclaimed.

"KAT!" Coop yelled as he swung the door open and rushed out into the backyard. Coop stopped a few feet in front of the cats and got into his fighting stance.

"Okay cat, you have five second to get out of here before I start kicking tail!" Coop threatened, locking eyes with the new, smaller cat.

But instead of responding the cat blinked up at him owlishly, tilted her head sideways in confusion and meowed. Coop glared harder in frustration.

"We know you're playing dumb, so cut the act." Dennis said from beside him. Again the cat blinked at him and meowed.

"Alright, times up cat!" Coop said, but before he could take more than one step towards it he caught the split second sight a smirk and the cat let out a loud high pitched yowl.

Coop and Dennis jumped back immediately in shock just as they heard the sound of the back door sliding open and Millie ran out, shoving them both out of the way.

Millie gasped in shock and glared daggers at Coop and Dennis.

"What did you do to her!" Millie yelled as she went to gently scoop up the injured feline.

"We didn't-" Coop started but was cut off by the entrance of their dad.

"What's going on?"

"Dad, this cat-"

"Daddy, they hurt Mr. Kat's new friend, now she's limping!" Millie yelled pointing an accusing finger at them.

"What?! No we didn't!" Dennis yelled back.

"It's faking! We didn't even touch the stupid cat!" Coop added.

"Liars!"

"Enough!" Mr. Burtonburger yelled, gaining everyone's attention. "I don't know how this cat got hurt, but we should try to help it." Mr. Burtonburger said as he bent down on his knees beside Millie, taking a closer look at the cat. He slowly moved his finger to lift the injured paw. The cat yowled softly in pain.

"It seems like its paw is sprained at the least." Mr. Burtonburger said. "We'll need to take it to a vet."

The cat's ears flattened down on its head and it directed its pitiful gaze up at Millie.

"But daddy, why can't I take care of her? Mr. Kat hates the vet and she won't like it either. Will you little kitty?" Millie said looking down at the cat in her arms. Said cat yowled softly and snuggled further into her dress.

"See? She doesn't like the vet. Besides," Millie said showing her own big eyes to her daddy. "I can easily take care of her myself with the help of my feline assistant." She said waving her free hand towards Kat.

"What!? No way!" Coop yelled, but was shut down by a disapproving look shot from his dad. His dad turned back to look at Millie with a sympathetic gaze.

"I don't know sweetie. Taking care of an injured animal is a pretty big job."

"No need to worry! Nurse Millie will take care of everything." Millie said giving him a salute with her free hand.

"Dad, you can't!" Coop interrupted. "We already have one cat! We don't need two!"

Mr. Burtonburger looked at him for a moment and nodded his head.

"Coop's right Millie. We don't have enough money to feed two cats." He said looking down at Kat. "Especially with the way Mr. Kat eats."

"But daddy, she's hurt. I can't just leave her!" Millie said with tears in her eyes.

"Millie-" Mr. Burtonburger stopped short as Millie started to whimper. Just as she was about to open her mouth and scream, Mr. Burtonburger placed his hand over her mouth.

"Okay, okay! How about this? We'll keep the cat only until it gets better." Millie jumped up in excitement, while Coop and Dennis frowned. "But as soon as she gets better we have to take her to the shelter. Agreed?"

Millie squealed happily in excitement before giving their dad a tight sideways hug with her free arm. While Coop on the other hand groaned and glared daggers at the 'injured' feline.

"Thank you daddy! Thank you! I'll take really good care of her!" Millie said as she swiftly made her way back into the house with Kat right on her heals. Just as Coop was about to try to persuade his dad again, the other cat popped it's head over Millie's shoulder and smirked devilishly at them.

Coop's eyes practically popped open in shock before he glared at it more fiercely, as if doing so would make it burst into flames.

_This isn't over cat! I'll find out what you're up to and put a stop to it!_

He turned back around to his dad and pointed at Millie's retreating form.

"Dad, did you see-" He however stopped short at the glare he was currently getting from his father. "I-um."

"What part of go no where without an adult did you two not understand?"

"I-"

"We're sorry Mr. Burtonburger. We just forgot." Dennis explained.

"Oh, I see. Well since you both forgot to follow the rules, you two can forget about coming out of your room for the rest of the day." Coop's dad said as he steered the boys back towards the house.

"But-"

"No buts! I'll be bringing you two your dinner later, but until tomorrow I better not see either of you two out of that room. Have I made myself clear?"

They both hung their heads as they responded with an affirmative. Nodding back at them, Mr. Burtonburger walked them up to their room and shut the door behind him. Coop let out a long frustrated groan as he kicked the side of his bed.

"Tomorrow we need to find a way to get rid of that cat. One is bad enough!"

"Yeah, and now he's brought a friend. Whatever he's planning must be big if he's calling in the reinforcements." Dennis said as he sat down on his sleeping bag. "But Coop this time we're going to have to be really stealthy. Your dad's really serious about keeping an eye on us."

"Okay, but we can't exactly go snooping around outside, and we know that's where they're doing whatever it is they're doing."

"Well, the way I see it we can just follow them around here. Think about it. If we stay on them while they're in the house…" Dennis said.

"Then we can stop them from going out and getting to their hiding spot!"

"Plus, with Millie playing doctor on that other cat, she won't be letting it out of her sight."

"And, if it's always inside with Millie, then dad will be close by if it ever tries to attack us, and he'll see what they really are." Coop said, giving Dennis a high five.

"See what happens when you calm down for a bit?" Dennis said, reaching for a pen and paper to write down their plans. Coop blushed a bit and scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It's just… with everything kind of piling on us like this I… I've just been losing my head." Coop said uncomfortably. Dennis stopped his writing to look up at his friend.

"Coop, I get it. You feel a lot of stress and it's messing with your judgment. You think a few mistakes are gonna make me give up on you or something?" Dennis laughed as he continued writing down some things about the cat they saw. Coop laughed a bit too as he plopped himself down next to Dennis.

"Of course not. Now, lets see what we've got so far."


	11. Chapter 11

Megan looked intently at the room Millie had carried her into. She had been placed on a pillow on top of the couch and was told to "stay still" until she got back.

The room wasn't that interesting but what was was the way those two boys kept looking at her. They didn't even try to hide their distrust as they hadn't taken their eyes off her since they entered the room. Even now she could feel their glares on either side of her as she looked at the television set with little interest.

While she pretended to pay attention to the cartoon Millie had selected for her while she wait, her ears were erect and ready to pick up on any movement her seating companions made.

Her ear twitched as she registered the sound of Millie's returning footsteps. Just as Millie was about to enter from the hall, Megan stood up and placed herself rather suddenly in the lap of the boy to her right. Said boy flinched violently and shoved her off his lap to the floor. Megan made a show of laying on the floor and yowling loudly in pain as though the shove had forced her to land on her injured wrist.

As expected, Millie rushed to her side. In her hand the little bag of ice she had went to retrieve for her.

"What in the heck was that for?!" Millie yelled at the boy who had shoved her, as she softly lifted Megan up and placed her back on the pillow. "She had only been trying to be friendly. Not that you two jerks deserve it!"

Megan let out a small whimper and gazed up at Millie while extending her now bandaged wrist. Millie had taken no pause yesterday in wrapping her paw and creating a splint for her.

Millie glared up at the dark haired boy, who was now raising his hands in a sign of surrender.

"S-sorry. She just startled me." The boy said, the slight increase in his heart rate showed that the younger girl's anger had scared him. Megan smirked at this information. It seemed that while she was smaller, Millie held a sort of power over the other two. Interesting.

Millie's glare hardened before she turned back to Megan and gave her a soft smile.

"It's okay Miss Kitten. Now hold still." Millie said as she gently placed the bag of ice on her paw. Megan tensed at first but slowly relaxed as a burning sensation she hadn't even noticed faded away. Millie smiled as she noticed the tenseness in Megan's body disappear.

Millie turned back to the dark haired boy, who had been trying to discreetly slide off the couch, and grabbed him by the tail of his shirt.

"You're not going anywhere until you apologize."

"I already did!" He said, again raising his hands in surrender.

"Not to me! To her!" She said pointing a finger at Megan. Seeing as Millie's eyes were now on the boy, Megan flashed him a smug smile. This was going to be fun.

"Why? She's a cat! She won't-" He said but Millie cut him off with a raised hand.

"Either apologize or I can tell my daddy that you pushed her off the couch." Millie said with a expectant look in her eyes. Megan snickered a bit internally. So that was the power she had over them. Not only was she a forceful little thing, but the father came at her beck and call.

The boy seemed like he was having an inner debate with himself before he sighed, turned and walked over to stand in front of Megan's pillow.

"I'm sorry." He said in one breath.

"What was that Dennis? You said it so fast I don't think she heard you." Millie said from his side, her arms crossed and foot tapping on the carpeted floor.

The boy, Dennis, rolled his eyes and looked down at Megan. Megan smiled up at him innocently, something that seemed to only irritate him more considering the glare he was trying not to make. He closed his eyes and let out another long breath of air before looking back down at her.

"I'm sorry." He said, this time pronouncing each word clearly and slowly. Obviously a slight snub to Millie who's glare had yet to leave him.

"That'll do." Millie said lifting the pillow with Megan up, sitting down and placing the pillow in her lap.

Dennis sat back down on the couch, Millie and Megan now right beside him. Megan smiled victoriously as both boys sat irritably on their ends of the couch and scowled.

_I'm going to enjoy staying here._

**.**   **.**   **.**

Coop watched closely from his bedroom window as Millie took the cat outside and scowled when he remembered that he couldn't follow them unless he was accompanied by an adult.

Looking over to the side of the room he saw that Dennis had been writing a few things down in his notepad. Dennis brows were furrowed and he kept squinting at the paper, as though he could find the answer he was looking for if he looked at the paper close enough.

Coop coughed to get his attention but even then he didn't look up. Irritated, Coop walked over and glanced down at what Dennis had been writing. Oddly enough it looked to be a mess of crossed out words.

"Dennis, what are you doing?" Coop asked looking over over his friend's shoulder. Dennis jumped, not noticing that Coop had moved so close to him, and scowled.

"I was just looking over our notes. It's too early to draw a conclusion or anything but I wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything yesterday."

"Oh." Coop said sitting down beside him.

"So far we know that Kat's built some sort of tiny bug machines and put them in a circle around this area." Dennis said taking a crumbled piece of paper out of his pocket. "I wrote this in a hurry while you were chasing Kat."

Unfolding the paper, Coop saw that there was an odd scribbling of words, hardly visible enough to read.

"What does it say?"

"Well, while we were running I tried to write what direction that clearing was in. My best guess was that..." He said pointing at the faded words. "The site should be somewhere west of your house."

Coop blinked owlishly in astonishment. "Wow Dennis. I'm surprised you had the hindsight to do this. I didn't even notice where we were going." Coop said with a slight blush.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. I only remembered to do it at the last second. If one of us had thought to pay attention to what direction Kat had been coming from we'd probably have found the place sooner."

That didn't exactly help to lift Coop's mood. Trying to think of something else, Coop walked back to the window and glanced down at his sister and that cat again, only now noticing the absence of another hairless pest.

"If anything I bet that naked rat is back at that camp site."

Dennis walked over to the window as well and stood beside him as they both looked over the yard.

"If we really did cause some damage the other night then he's probably back there trying to fix it." Dennis said. He then focused his attention on Millie and the cat. "And we can't go out there without an adult, or Millie will rat us out."

"Yup." Coop said with a sigh.

They both turned from the window and slid to the floor.

"My dad won't be back until later so we can't exactly go anywhere." Coop said with a scowl. Dennis nodded his head.

"And my dad said that if I get in trouble again he's going to put one of those high tech security locks on my door and window."

Coop scowled harder. Out of all the times his dad didn't believe him this had to be the worse. Now there were two alien cats he had to worry about. Why couldn't he get caught when the world wasn't at stake? With all his dad's talk about responsibility it only made it more clear that he had a responsibility to stop whatever plan Kat was working on.

Coop was about to make some insult about Kat when he remembered the look on his dad's face when he caught them in the forest. He'd been trying to forget about it but it just kept coming back to him. That look of disappointment. He's never seen his dad look like that before. Sure he'd made him angry but to actually know he disappointed his only parent made him feel… sick.

Coop hit the back of his head against the wall in frustration.

"My dad thinks I'm a screw up."

Dennis turned his head sharply in his direction and stared at Coop in surprise. He opened his mouth to say something but ended up closing it again. He took his time in figuring out his response.

"You're dad doesn't think you're a screw up. He's just worried about you. He doesn't believe in all this so when we go off and something happens he thinks you're getting yourself into danger for no reason. He just wants to know that you're responsible enough to take care of yourself."

Dennis placed a hand on Coop's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"Once he realized how responsible you really are I'm sure he'll calm down."

Coop scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, responsible, sure." Coop said, not meeting his eyes. "Just like how responsible I was when I lead us through the forest without a map or any other way to find our way back. If not for Kat leading us back towards the house, and dad finding us, we would have been lost."

"Coop, you can't put all the blame on yourself. I was right there with you and it's not like you twisted my arm to make me follow you. I'm completely capable of thinking for myself and that means we both should have been thinking more clearly about what was going on." Dennis said earnestly. "Besides, if you hadn't dragged us out there when you did, we might not have seen the direction Kat was going and found that clearing. You are responsible Coop. You just tend to let emotions cloud your judgement."

Coop turned to Dennis and gave him an appreciative smile. He was just about to tell him how helpful he was when a spark of an idea lit up in his head.

_Responsibility... emotion…_

Coop stared off into space as his idea started to form. If he could just get a better hold on his emotions, then maybe… Yes!

"Dennis!" Coop said suddenly with excitement. Dennis's eyes went wide from the sudden change in mood and responded with a confused "Yeah?"

"I've got an idea that might help us! What you just said about my emotions? Well, I'm not the only one with that problem!"

Dennis's brows furrowed as he tried to keep up with Coop's train of thought.

"Okay? Who?"

"Kat! Don't you remember? Whenever he started to get really pissed at us he would lose focus! Just like I did when I was chasing him the other night! He's had the advantage all this time because he's been keeping calm while making me angry. If we can just turn the tables on him…

"Then we can have the upper hand!" Dennis finished. Coop nodded vigorously in excitement.

"All we have to do is act nice to him and that other cat long enough to get close to them. If we don't react to their taunts then Millie won't be able to tell dad that we've been hurting her cat and he won't have a reason to keep us away from them. That way we can watch them as much as possible!"

"And with us around them all the time they won't have any chance to sneak off to that little area of theirs, and if they do we'll just tell Millie that we saw them going into the forest. With how protective she is she'd be terrified of Kat getting hurt so far away from where she can reach him." Dennis said.

"Especially with that other one pretending to be hurt. She'll have a heart attack if she sees her little patient trying to sneak back into the forest where she 'supposedly' got injured." Coop said with a smirk. "And with them so close by and my dad not having a reason to punish us, we may even stall long enough for our punishment to get taken off, and once that's gone we can run back to that site and see exactly what they've been up to!"

"And maybe even bring back some evidence. If we're able to take pictures, or better yet grab something, then we'll be able to prove to the world what's been going on. The government might even take over from there!"

Coop's eyes lit up at that idea. If they were able to get evidence not only could they give it to the government, but his dad will have no choice but to believe him. Finally!

Just as he was fantasizing about what will happen once they get Kat locked away, the sound of a car horn interrupted his thoughts and he heard his dad's voice calling out from the car.

Coop rushed down the stairs, his excitement giving him an extra boost of energy. He rushed out the room, and just as he was about to give his dad a loud and excited welcome back, there was a sudden pull at his arm. Coop turned around to see Dennis right beside him, looking down the hallway stairs with a discouraged look on his face. Coop blinked owlishly at him in confusion before looking down towards the front door and noticing a box held under his dad's arms. The sight of it made his stomach drop.

It was marked "Home Window Security Alarms".

His dad had actually bought an alarm in case Coop snuck out again. Like he was some sort of criminal. Coop stared down in sullen shock for a moment before noticing that his dad was now talking to Millie who in her arms sat that new cat.

A cat that was now smiling at him with an evil sort of glee in her eyes.

Coop stood there shocked for a moment before turning his back suddenly and going back into his room. He stood there in his room with his back to the open doorway. His fist clenched tightly at his sides.

Dennis walked in quietly and softly closed the door behind him. He could see Coop's fist shaking at his sides, and he could hear his breathing coming in and out in harsh breathes. He was about to say something to try and calm Coop down when he noticed his breathing slowly calm, and his fist slowly loosening and becoming open at his sides. Coop turned around slowly and gave Dennis a confident smirk.

"They think this is gonna distract me? Throw us off our game? Well that just shows how cocky they are. They're not even gonna see what hits them."

Dennis smiled and nodded his head in agreement. Coop nodded as well and walked back towards the door and out into the hallway again.

_I'm not gonna let this stop me. We're going to stop them and prove to everyone that we were right. Then my dad will have no choice but to believe me._


	12. Chapter 12

Kat smiled as he finished hooking up the transportation system connecting his lab to Megan's ship. He had made sure to sneak out early in the morning in order to get this up and running by dinner time.

 _In fact._  Kat thought, looking through the window and out at the sun.  _It should be about dinner by the time I get to the house._

Kat couldn't help but snicker at the thought of his sister and those two morons in the same house together. He was sure once he got back she would have some fun tales to tell him.

**. Time Skip .**

Kat's happy mood continued with him as he made it home and climbed through the back window. He had made it just in time, as the family hadn't started moving to the kitchen yet, and from the sounds of it everyone was still in the living room.

 _Well, probably not everyone._  Kat thought with a smirk. With how volatile Coop was no doubt acting, his dad probably sent him and Dennis up to his room.

Kat snickered to himself as he entered the living room, only to halt in shock as he noticed Millie sitting in between Coop and Dennis on the couch, with none other than Megan sitting in her lap. His mouth almost dropped open as both boys only sat there glaring at her as she sat peacefully in Millie's lap. Kat caught her eyes and she sent him a look that clearly imitated how confused he felt.

Kat stood there dumbfounded for another few moments when Burt stood up and called everyone to dinner.

"Oh, hello there." Burt said to him as he passed. "Millie, Mr. Kat's come out. Must have smelt dinner." He said with a laugh. Millie picked Megan up and hurried over to her pet.

"Mr. Kat, where have you been? Miss Kitten and me have been worried." Millie said, pouting. "Well, at least you're here to introduce Miss Kitten to your favorite food!"

Millie walked over to where they kept the Fishy Frisky Bits and poured some into his bowl until it was overflowing with food.

"We don't have another bowl yet, so you'll have to share." Millie placed Megan and her pillow down next to the bowl and skipped over to the table to join the rest of her family. Kat blinked stupidly and looked in her direction before walking over to the bowl and Megan. She gave him an inquiring look towards the food and he nodded. She nodded in return and they started to eat.

While they ate Kat and Megan kept their backs turned to the family and whispered softly to each other.

"I don't understand what's going on." Megan said with a frown.

"Me either," Kat replied. He turned his head to glance over at the table and caught Coop's eye. He quickly turned back to his food and continued to eat. "For now let's just keep eating and act natural."

Kat moved back to the opposite side of the bowl and ate, his ears pointed towards the table, and though Megan didn't move from her pillow he could see her ears were pointed in the same direction.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Coop smirked into his pot roast as he watched the cats go back to their food. Everything was going as planned. Trying not to look back towards them again, Coop continued to eat and tried to engage Millie in conversation about the new outfits she was making for Kat and Miss Kitten. If he had to be nice to them, he was going to make sure they were as uncomfortable as possible.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Megan scooted over on her pillow and waited for Aiden to get comfortable before asking her question.

"I don't understand. I had did what you said, and while it did get them angry, they started acting like nothing happened an hour later."

"Did anything happen after you teased them?" Kat asked. Megan shook her head.

"Not much. I had tricked one of them into shoving me on the floor. Then Millie yelled at him and made him apologize, and while the forced apology was unexpected, it did help in making them more upset." Megan explained. "Then they had went up to their room, while Millie had taken me outside to have tea. A little bit later the father came home with a security device for the boys window so they couldn't sneak out. I saw the boy's face when he came down and saw it. He had looked enraged and even ran back into his room. I had been sure he would come down and throw a fit but he just sat down on the couch as though nothing happened."

Kat put a finger to his chin and hummed to himself.

"If he started acting calmer after the father came home then it's possible that they're at such a short leash that he's trying not to further extend their punishment." Kat said. "The dark haired one probably convinced him to stay calm so they wouldn't get in more trouble."

"That makes sense." Megan surmised. "The worse they've done since the father came back was glare at me."

Kat smirked as an idea came to mind.

"Like I said earlier, this was probably brought on by the dark haired one, Dennis." Kat explained. "It's easy to get Coop riled up, I personally make a game of it, but Dennis is a bit less thick. As such we'll need to work a bit more on him to make him crack. If we crack him there will be no one around to keep Coop in check."

Megan chuckled a bit.

"Funny, since he's the one I got to shove me off the couch. I plopped myself in his lap and he flinched like I had electrocuted him."

"Well then dear sister let's make a game of this. Whoever can piss off those idiots the most wins. Coop is normal points, Dennis is extra." Kat said with a smirk, extending his paw.

"Fine. If this really is a fluke like you say then it shouldn't be a problem." Megan said as she shook his paw with her left.

"Trust me, it is. There's no way a hot head like Coop could resist blowing up for long." Kat said, his ear then twitched as the sound of Millie's footsteps came through from the hall.

"I've got to go check the transportation system before Millie comes back and tries to put me in some ridiculous outfit. I'll be back in half an hour." He then jumped up onto his cat condo and into the elevator. Before it lowered a sent her a smile. "No scoring points while I'm gone."

Megan rolled her eyes and waved her paw in a shoo motion.

"Fiiiine. Just hurry so we can get to work."

Aiden laughed as the elevator doors closed and he went down into his lab. Megan smiled at the now empty cat house. She hadn't seen him face to face in so long it was nice to know that he kept some of his humor. Though now, sitting alone in Millie's room, she almost felt sad. Before she could think more on this the door opened and Millie's voice rang through the room.

"Mr. Kat, Miss Kitten, today we'll-" Millie stopped suddenly and looked around the room in confusion. "Where'd Mr. Kat go?" She said with a frown.

"Ooh, that Mr. Kat's gonna get an earful from me when he gets back. Leaving our injured guest alone like that is so rude and insensitive." She said, her hands on her hips. "Don't worry Miss Kitten, I'll give you an official tour of the house while we wait."

Megan let out a disgruntled meow as she and her pillow were picked up suddenly. She dug her claws into the pillow as she was lifted up and carried out into the hallway. Once Millie stopped in the hall she relaxed and looked up at her. Millie smiled down at her and pointed to the door on the far side of the hall.

"There, Miss Kitten, is my daddy's room." She then pointed to the door opposite of her own.

"And that," She said with an irritated glance. "Is my brother's room. He can be a huge idiot at times, but I guess most boys are."

Millie shrugged and continued to walk downstairs towards the front doorway. Stopping a few feet away, she indicated a handful of pictures that were hanging on the wall.

"This is where we put a few pictures of friends and family." Millie said. Megan looked over the pictures with interest. Most of the pictures featured the ones in the house she already knew, but others had humans she wasn't familiar with. There was a photo of an older dark haired man and Dennis playing a game against Coop and his father, a photo of Millie and a group of other small girls wearing what looked to be a green and blue uniform of sorts, and a few others of Coop with other children his age. She took a minute to look at and try to remember the other people in the photos. She was at least sure that her brother had mentioned the budgy one in the blue hoody, and the one next to him with the green hat covering his eyes.

Megan stopped looking at the handful of photos in front of her when she noticed that Millie had been quiet for a while now and looked up at her questioningly. She seemed to be focused on one picture in particular. Megan focused on it and got a glimpse of a woman with long dark hair before Millie turned suddenly and walked to the living room.

"This is our living room, as you already know." Millie said. "It's where we watch TV and movies together, and a lot of the time I get to pick out what to watch."

Megan snickered a bit.

_I'm sure you do._

But then Megan frowned as she tried to look over Millie's shoulder to take a better look at the picture she'd been looking at so intently. Unfortunately Millie was already moving from the living room to the kitchen and her view was blocked by the archway wall.

"Here is where you and Mr. Kat will eat. Don't worry, I'll get you your own bowl soon. I know how hungry Mr. Kat gets, so he probably hogs all the Frisky Bits to himself." Millie said with a giggle. Megan tilted her head a bit in confusion as she looked at Millie. Her laugh was genuine, but something in her eyes made it seem like she wasn't completely into the conversation. Megan wasn't sure, but it almost looked sad.

Millie let out a sigh and turned around to head into a hall at the back of the living room.

"This is the way to the basement." Millie said as she opened the door that revealed a stairway. She reached for a long string overhead and pulled to turn on the light that hung on the ceiling.

"It's where we do our laundry, and where Mr. Kat goes to potty." She said, pointing to a litter box that sat a yard or so from the heater. "But since you're hurt you get to go in bathroom. I set up a little box in there for you."

Millie turned the light back off, and proceeded back up through the living room and up the stairs. Megan noticed her eyes flicker back towards that picture as they passed it, and looked up at her to see her reaction. This time Megan was sure she saw sadness.

Megan pushed herself up with her good paw and rubbed her head against Millie's cheek. Millie stood still at first, but soon raised her hand to rub down her back.

"You're such a sweet kitty. Why would anyone want to hurt you?" Millie said looking at Megan's injured paw. Millie nuzzled Megan's nose and proceeded up the stairs. As they headed for Millie's room the father came out of his and greeted them.

"Hey Millie, Miss Kitten. Millie do you mind helping me find a movie to watch? No one picks em like you." He says placing a hand on Millie's head. Millie nods and sends a look to Megan. 'See?'

Megan holds back a snicker and lets out a long yawn, laying down further on her pillow and looking up at Millie pleadingly. Millie nods and smiles up at her father before asking him to wait a moment while she puts Miss Kitten in her room.

"I think she's a bit tired." Millie says as she opens the door. Her father nods.

"Well, cats do sleep about 70% of their lives and she is injured. Makes sense that she'd want to take a nap."

Millie places Megan down on the windowsill seat and heads back out the door. She pauses at the doorway and gives Megan a big smiles.

"Don't worry. I'll save the best movie for when you and Mr. Kat are there to see it." She then turned off the ceiling light and closed the door behind her. Megan could hear her and her father's retreating footsteps as they headed downstairs and into the living room.

Megan then stood up and hoped her way up to her brother's hidden elevator. He better be working and not just trying to avoid getting put in a dress.


	13. Chapter 13

Megan twisted another bolt on her part of the machine before peeking over her shoulder at what her brother was doing. As promised he was now typing up some programming codes to help her with the computer's CPU and was also putting in some knowledge of Earth's animal kingdom. They would have to do some more research on this planet's animals, Megan thought.

She continued to twist the bolt but was distracted not only with her irritation with having to use her left paw, but by a nagging question that had been on her mind since her "home tour" with Millie. She thought on it some more, trying to come up with how to phrase her question so it would come out as disinterested. She sighed and put her wrench down, turning her swivel chair around to face her brother's back.

"Aiden, is there anything I would need to know about the children's mother? I've yet to see her and I worry that she will not be as accepting of Millie choice to take care of me as the father is."

Aiden stopped his typing momentarily before continuing again. He also took time to consider his answer.

"I don't think it'll be a problem. I've never seen a female adult in this house other than that old woman next door."

Megan's ears pointed up in intrigue, but she turned around to make it look like she was preoccupied with her part of the machine.

"Oh," She said, pausing to give her question a disinterested appearance. "Why would that be?"

Aiden's ears flatten to his head as an odd feeling sat in his stomach.

"Considering that no sign of a mother has been shown, I've assumed she was either estranged from the father or deceased." Aiden said, glancing over at his sister's turnt back. He knew she wasn't just asking this out of a bit of curiosity. She knows that if their was a possibility of disagreement or resent from the mother he would have dealt with it beforehand. Yes, they were not as close as they used to be, but he had always been one to plan ahead in things.

He opened his mouth to ask her why she was so interested but closed it as he noticed the slight tenseness in her shoulders. Whatever reason she had for it was not one he would be let in on unless she wanted him to, and from the way she had worded everything, it was obvious that she didn't want him to be.

He turned back around to look at the work he had done so far and smiled at what she had already done before he had even added his codes to it.

"You know, you had done very good work on this programming beforehand. I didn't even have to fix anything." He said.

Megan looked over her shoulder at him and blinked in surprise. Trying not to blush at her brother's approving gaze she literally waved it off with her paw.

"I didn't do much. I had only remembered a few things you and Mini showed me. It wasn't that much better than any other novice programmer."

"I disagree. These codes are solid, and the interface you've developed is some of the best work I've seen. Definitely better than the military's standard computers."

Megan's face felt warm as he continued to praise her. She had gotten praise from a few costumer's before but it was very rare, and the last time she had heard her brother's praise had been years ago. Sure, he had praised her work on the machine before but this felt different. Before she was sure he was just in a rush of excitement over the idea of finishing his mission. She felt warmth not only in her face but the rest of her. It felt nice. The last time she had felt like this had been when Mini praised her.

Megan laughed a bit at his comment on the military's computers and turned her chair around to look at his.

"I see you've made a few modifications to your own." Megan said, gesturing to the large computer screen and it's many add ons. Like a bigger and faster processing unit, its self designed camera, and what looked to be a hologram projector that was currently in the works.

Aiden looked up at his add ons as well and laughed.

"You thought I was going to settle on something so primitive. My mind needs something a lot more advance in order to keep up with me." He said with a smug grin. "Speaking of keeping up."

Aiden stood up and walked over to the large, metal, spherical tube that was connected to his computer by a handful of cords. There was a sliding trap with a handle on the side of it, similar to something you'd see on a garbage shoot. The huge thing was sitting on the floor and was tall enough to fit one of them in it, let alone the pieces of machinery they planned to send through it. Aiden patted his paw against it softly in pride and turned to look back at his sister.

"With this teleporter all functional we'll be able to keep up with our planned date and be done before the Emperor can try to check in on us." Aiden said. Megan nodded, smiling happily at the machine her brother had put together. He may compliment her on her work but he had a style to his that she truly admired. All his work seemed so ahead of everything else. The military didn't even have completely functional teleportation devices and her brother had one sitting in his lab. She couldn't help but admire his ability.

And he had complimented her work. Like she was on his level.

With this new bit of inspiration in mind, she turned back to her work and grabbed her wrench with her left paw. She didn't even care if she had to use her tail at this point. She was going to continue working even if it killed her.

 **.**   **.**   **.**

Aiden's ear twitched and shifted to point back as he noticed that the sound of metal moving against metal had stopped. He turned around in his seat to see that his sister had fallen asleep over what, he noted, was surprisingly a finished piece of work. He could remember how it looked in the "finished product" part of Megan's blueprints and it looked as though she had done it to the letter, and all with a sprained wrist.

He smiled a bit at her sleeping form. Her little body purred in her sleep and he couldn't help but think how nice it was to hear it. He hadn't thought of it in a long time, but it was nice to see someone of his own kind again. Even with his less than stellar experiences with a lot of them.

Coming to this planet had really made him feel… alone.

At first that was his intent when coming to this planet. Someplace so very far from his home planet where he wouldn't have to deal with anyone or anything back home that upset him. Now seeing his little sister, spending time with someone else, it made him feel happy in a way he hadn't realized he missed. To be understood even just a little bit by someone else.

His paw had touched her head before he had even realized it.

_Why did I leave you behind?_

**BEEP, BEEP, BEEP…!**

Aiden jumped and removed his hand as the sound of his alarm shook him out of his thoughts. He heard the sound of Megan's wrench hitting the floor, as the sound of the alarm had surprised her into knocking it off the table. She looked around, startled and drowsy, as she tried to scan the room for the noise, while looking like a half dead zombie in her tiredness.

Aiden almost laughed at his sister's reaction if he was not currently holding his paw against his heart in shock. He quickly moved his paw from his still pounding heart and back to his side. After a moment of deep breathing he coughed and looked back to Megan with a calmer exterior.

"Th-that was just my alarm. It's to tell me when Millie is supposed to be getting to bed." He said, not making eye contact with her for a moment. Finally he looked at her and saw that she was still clearly shaken, and tired. She gave him a drowsy smile and a little laugh.

"Is she really so young that she needs a bedtime?" Megan asked. She had to be around 10 years old. Did parents still assign their children bedtimes at this age?

Aiden smiled at her. Megan looked like she needed a bedtime more than Millie.

"Not really, but Millie likes to go to sleep around this time so she can..." He said letting out a sigh. "Wake up early."

Megan leaned her head back on the desk and let out a groan. Mornings were not exactly her forte. After so much time staying up late building things, plus meeting and chatting with clients, she hadn't gotten up early in what seemed like years.

Aiden let out a similar groan. He, of course, should be used to Millie's antics, but that would be if she hadn't came up with this "Early Rise" idea only a few days ago. Since the break was entering its last half she decided that there was "no time to waste" and she would have to wake up early in order to get as much out of the short break as possible.

 _Then again._  He thought.  _The break is even longer than it should be. Considering the school had to be repaired since that last fiasco involving one of my robots and Coop._

Aiden held back a growl at that memory and instead extended his paw for his sister to grab. She did and slowly lifted herself up from her seat. He kept his hand extended but she immediately let go and started to wobble her way towards the elevator. He walked closely beside her, making sure to have his paw hovering close to her in case she toppled over in exhaustion.

Even after they made their way to the top and out of the cat condo, he kept close to her as she walked back to her pillow and promptly fell into it. He watched for a moment as she shifted her weight around on the pillow, leaning over to her left so not to roll over on her bandaged paw. He nodded his head in approval and leapt from the windowsill where her pillow had been placed, and over to the lower left corner of Millie's bed where he often slept.

He looked over at his sister's sleeping form and felt a strong yearning to sleep close to her. He quickly squashed that idea before he could even try to move towards her. She would no doubt scold him on being so overprotective of her or outright reject his concern. Besides, it would probably just come off as odd, laying close to her like she was a kitten.

He kept his body still and tried not to think too hard on it as he waited for Millie. In around 15 minutes time she came in from the living room. Aiden's eyes were already lidded in a half uncomfortable sleep, so as she came in, while his ears did twitch, he didn't look up.

Still, he could hear her moving and his sleepy mind partly wondered why he didn't hear her come to the bed immediately. He expected her to walk right to the bed but was surprised to hear her dawdling over by the windowsill Megan's pillow was laying on. Next thing he knew she was coming towards him and he felt the weight of the bed shift ever so softly next to him. He tiredly cracked open his sleepy eyes to notice the presence of another certain purple feline laying beside him, still on her big poofy pillow. He looked over at Millie in surprise and saw that she was now crawling into bed herself. She let out a long yawn before leaning over to softly pet the two felines.

"Goodnight, Mr. Kat. Goodnight, Miss Kitten." Millie whispered. She then laid her head on her pillow and went to sleep.

Kat took one more look at Millie and then his sister, before laying his head back down and drifting off to sleep himself.

_Goodnight._


	14. Chapter 14

Megan's mind slowly started to defog as the morning light shined through the window, and she could hear the soft sound of Millie's feet padding across the carpet floor as she scurried around the room.

Megan stretched out her limbs and winced as a sharp pain shot through her right paw.

_Ow!_

Right. She had almost forgot about that.

She had slept so well last night that she had completely forgotten about her bandaged arm. She could hardly remember sleeping that well, and the feeling of the nice soft pillow Millie had given her only made it harder to stay awake. Since when had it felt that nice just to sleep? It was almost enough to make the pain in her wrist disappear, and even with that this was the most rested she'd felt in months.

Megan drowsily looked around the room and noticed with a bit of a start that she had been moved from the windowsill to Millie's bed. She should have noticed something like that and berated herself for her lack of awareness. If she had been in her ship someone could have snuck up on her and stole all her inventions, and if it was a military soldier, arrested her.

She scowled at her own lack of perception and glanced over to the right of her where she could see that Aiden was awake and currently rolling his eyes at Millie's antics. Megan turned her head slightly to see what Millie was doing and saw that she was having a small argument with herself over which outfit was suitable for today.

"We could go with the blue one, but I don't think that would go to well with his coloring." Millie mumbled. Megan blinked herself awake as she realized why Aiden looked so agitated. Millie wasn't picking out her clothes. She was picking out his.

Megan held back a snicker as Millie grabbed one of the outfits and turned to hold it in front of Aiden's body. It was a blue shirt with a pattern of little fishes swimming around on it. Megan bit her lip, shaking a bit, as she tried to control her giggles. Aiden was not amused.

_Think of it this way, Aiden. At least it isn't a dress this time._

Her body shook again as small giggle slipped out and Aiden turned his scowl on to her. She gave him a smirk in return, one that faltered when Millie turned her attention to her.

"Oh, Miss Kitten you're up!" Millie said. She looked down at the shirt in her hands and then back at Megan with a big smile. "Don't you worry, Miss Kitten. I've already started making you an outfit! You're going to look so cute in the summer dress I'm making you!"

Megan smiled tightly as Millie continued to squeal about all the clothes she planned to make for her while she was recovering with them.

"But until then we'll just have to have tea parties without the dress up." Millie said with a sigh. Tea parties weren't nearly as fancy without the outfits, but she supposed that as long as Mr. Kat and Miss Kitten were with her she would enjoy it. Luckily she didn't notice the looks of relief her companions made at this.

A few minute later (most of which consisting of Millie talking about all the different outfits she was going to make) they found themselves sitting outside at Millie's round plastic tea table, and to Aiden's appreciation, with no outfits.

Megan looked on curiously as Millie set things around the table. Millie put a lot of effort into making sure everything was in it's right place and went around the table rearranging things and putting them into order again. Megan found it a bit enduring how Millie softly bit on her lip as she concentrated on her work. It reminded her of how she would get while writing up a new blueprint.

A few minutes a bustling around later she seemed to have finally decided on a placement and smiled proudly at her work. Megan looked to her brother, not really sure why the setup of the table was of such importance, let alone why every cup not only needed a small plate under them, but also a patterned cloth. Did she really think they were going to make that much of a mess?

Aiden shrugged his shoulders in response and continued to watch Millie as she ran back into the house for more supplies. Once Millie had gone back in Megan whispered softly to Aiden.

"What's going on?" She asked, worried that this was some sort of event like the ones the higher ups had on their planet. Aiden chuckled and shook his head.

"It's nothing. Millie just get's a bit eccentric at times. Don't worry. Just eat whatever she gives you." He said, and right on cue Millie came back through the door with an assortment of small sandwiches, cookies, and two little plates of Frisky Bits. Megan's eyes were instantly drawn to the Fishy treats as her stomach let out a low growl.

Millie carefully placed the sandwiches down in the middle of the table before placing their plates in front of them. Megan had to hold back her impatience as Millie moved their plates left and right, trying to put them in the perfect position.

"There!" Millie said as she finally had the plates where she wanted them.

Megan instantly started on her plate and only stopped when she heard the sound of the doors sliding open again. Looking up for a moment she noticed the father coming into the backyard. She would have dismissed this and continued eating if not for the two boys that followed right behind him, and seemed to be heading their way.

Megan glanced over to her brother who had also noticed the boys coming closer. He glared a bit in direction but his face relaxed into a bored look when Millie looked up from preparing their "tea". Looking down at her food, Megan let out a frustrated puff of air. If they made it so she couldn't finish her food there would be hell to pay.

Millie, who had been going to fill Aiden's cup, stopped and gave the two boys an annoyed glare.

"Yes?" She said shortly.

Dennis gave Millie a polite smile before responding. Coop tried to as well but his came off a bit more forced.

"We wanted to apologize for the way we acted towards your cat. We didn't mean to be rude. It's just that strays tend to be dangerous and we didn't want you getting hurt." Dennis said. Coop looks a little exasperated for a moment before nodding his head in agreement.

Millie nodded her head, her eyebrow raised. She glanced over to the other side of the patio, noticing her dad sitting in his lawn chair with a newspaper. She knew he was probably listening in case one of the boys did something stupid. She looked back to Coop's face and saw how tense he looked. He'd been looking that way a lot lately.

She let out a sigh. If this was his way of trying to get dad's trust again, she couldn't really deny them, even if he'd been a pain. She didn't want that cloud of tension around them anymore. Sure it had lessened over game night, but she could still feel it there. It wasn't something she wanted to keep around.

She continued to pour Mr. Kat and Miss Kitten their drinks before responding.

"I told you yesterday, Dennis. I'm not the one you need to apologize to," She said as she poured her own drink. She took a sip and looked over her cup at them. "And I'm not sure you're  _both_  sorry about what you did." She finished, eyes resting on them expectedly. She could see Coop let out a long breath through his nose as he stepped closer.

"I'm sorry too Millie. I didn't mean to hurt you or the cat's feelings." Coop said, managing a less fake looking smile this time. Millie studied him for a moment before looking towards the two cats beside her.

She could see Dennis give him a poke in the side when he hesitated, and Coop stepped back a bit to stand beside Dennis before both speaking.

"We're really sorry." The said in unison, to the surprise of their feline guests. Megan glanced over to Kat, noticing how expressionless he managed to look, before an idea came to mind.

 _Oh yes._  She thought.  _This will get the ball rolling._

Megan rose on three paws and slowly slipped her way off of her pillow to the stone patio. Making sure to emphasize her limp as she walked, she padded her way towards the boys, who stood stock still as she approached. She slowly made her way towards the brown haired one in particular and leaned her body against his leg. She could feel him flinch as she rubbed her head against his pants leg, and responded with a sweet meow with a big eyed look at him.

She almost laughed as his face drained of color. Honestly, what did he think she was going to do? Attack him with a sprained paw in front of their father? The very idea that he'd think that made her shake a bit with laughter, to which she played off as a purr.

_Now for the clincher._

She went back to the table, her eyes on them the whole time, and sat back down on her pillow. She meowed at them in a pleading fashion then turned to Millie, who seemed a little surprised by her friendliness.

Millie smiled and nodded her head, as though a request was given to her.

"They forgive you," Millie said. "And Miss Kitten wants you to join us in our tea party."

Kat almost broke his expressionless facade as Coop's face took on a look of extreme distress. He looked like he was about to say no when Dennis, again, poked him in the side. His eyes flickered towards Coop's dad, who was currently peeking over the top of his newspaper, and back towards Millie's "tea area" as she dubbed it.

Coop nodded and let out a long breath of air. Of course there was no way out now.

"We'd be delighted." Dennis said with a smile. Millie smiled as well at his polite tone and beckoned them both towards her with her finger. They got within two feet's distance from her before being pulled into a weird group hig. They were about to ask what was happening when Millie whispered softly into their ears.

"I swear if either of you do anything to hurt or upset Miss Kitten I will make you pay  _dearly_. Understand?" She said in a threatening whisper. They both nodded their heads quickly and Millie gave them a smile. "Good. Now hug me back. Dad's watching."

They both slowly wrapped their arms around the small girl, before letting go a few moments later. They stood in front of her with wary expressions while she placed two more cups at the table and gave them pillows to sit on.

"There aren't any chairs left, but you're both too tall to sit in them anyway."

Both boys grabbed the pillows offered and placed them on the ground to sit at the table. Dennis sitting on the left of Coop, separating him from the cats, and Coop on the left of Millie. Directly opposite to Kat who seemed to not have a care in the world.

Coop looked over to both of the cats at the table, and was both annoyed and happy with the fact that they seemed to by ignoring them. He squinted at them suspiciously.

Now that they'd gotten him and Dennis to sit with them he'd thought the cats would do something, or at the least be watching them, but no. Kat was currently staring off into space and his friend was curiously inspecting her cup of juice, or "tea" as Millie was calling it.

He raised an eyebrow when she slowly dipped her nose into the drink and her eyes opened wide with shock as a bit of it got on her nose. She then licked her lips and started drinking it in earnest. He glanced over to Dennis to see if he noticed and saw him drinking from his own tea cup. His eyes lidded.

Coop moved his eyes from his friend and glanced over to his dad, who was currently watching them. His eyes were peeking slightly over the edge of his newspaper to see what they were doing. As soon as his and his dad's eyes met he quickly diverted them to the small plate of oatmeal cookies Millie had baked.

 _Okay, here we go._  Coop took a moment to calm himself before looking at Millie with what he hoped was a friendly smile.

"So nurse Millie," Coop said. "How's your patient been doing? It looks like you did a good job wrapping up her paw."

Dennis nodded his head in agreement.

"A really good job, Millie. I didn't know you knew how to bandage this well." Dennis said. Millie smiled proudly at their compliments.

"Well I made sure to…" Coop tuned out on what she was saying to pay attention to the two cats. Especially this new one. The way it drank out of that cup was like it'd never tasted apple juice before, and since it was an alien like Kat, it probably hadn't. That meant that everything on Earth must be completely new to it. Coop smiled at this realization.

_I can definitely use that against it._

And he'd have to do it soon. Before Kat starts filling her in on all of Earth's little surprises.

Coop turned his attention back to his sister and tried to look attentive. If he wanted to stay close to the cats he'd have to get on her good side.

"So Millie how does this tea party work?" Coop said. He knew the only thing they did was eat snacks and talk but he also knew that Millie loved to explain things. Millie, as he thought, smiled at him, happy about his sudden interest.

"Well we drink our tea and talk about things. Of course we usually dress up for it but I haven't finished Miss Kitten's outfit yet so we went without."

"Well next time I guess Coop and me will have to dress up." Dennis said, reaching down to pick up his cup.

"Next time?" Millie said, her eyes focusing on Coop. Coop nodded his head.

"Yeah. We want to try and get used to the cats. Maybe if we're around them enough without fighting we won't have as many problems. Besides, I don't see anything wrong with spending time with my little sister. Especially if she's willing to share her baked treats." Coop said grabbing a cookie off the tray and biting into it enthusiastically. He fiddled with the other half of the cookie for a moment as he waited. He could feel himself getting a little nervous when she didn't respond immediately.

Millie looked suspiciously at Coop for a moment, and then glanced at Dennis, who was doing a much better job at keeping has face strait than Coop.

She almost wanted to say no. She knew they didn't really want to spend time with her, but she also knew they needed to look good in front of daddy, and no doubt staying inside so long was going to drive them crazy, and in response, drive her crazy. Plus, she had to admit to herself, she hadn't played with her brother in a long time now, and a little part of her wanted him around a little more. Finally, Millie looked over at the two cats before making her decision.

"Well, I guess if it's okay with them it's okay with me." Millie said, a small smile on her face. "Just remember what I told you and everything will go great." She finished with a smile that was an odd mixture of sweet, yet threatening.

Before either boy could question this, Millie stood up from the table and was making her way over to their dad.

Coop held his breath as Millie spoke to their dad for a minute. A minute in which Coop wondered if he had done anything wrong to warrant her tattling on them at the moment. Before he could panic himself any further though, Millie turned around and was making her way back towards them. She smiled and flattened her dress down as she retook her seat at the table. She continued to drink from her cup of juice, unnoticing of her brother's nervousness. He almost felt like squirming when Millie stopped drinking, and grabbed a cookie off the tray instead of telling them what was said. He was going to ask himself when she interrupted him.

"Daddy said that you can come and have tea with us whenever he's outside to watch you."

Coop opened his mouth to say something but was again interrupted by Millie as she continued.

"Of course you're only able to have tea with us as long as you to behave like gentlemen. By no means do we allow hooligans at our tea parties." Millie said as she once again took a sip.

Coop let out a sigh of relief and gave his sister a big smile.

"Don't you worry Millie. Me and Dennis will be on our best behavior!" Coop said, raising a hand and using the other to mark and 'x' over his heart.

"Yeah- ah!" Dennis yelled and gave a violent flinch as he felt a sudden weight in his lap. He looked down to notice the new cat, once again, making its way into his lap.

"Oh! S-sorry there M-Miss Kitten! You startled me." Dennis said, hoping his heart beat wasn't as loud as he feared, but by the way the cat smirked at him from under the table, he was sure she could hear it.

Millie moved quickly to look under the table, where Miss Kitten had taken Dennis' lap hostage. She let out a sigh of relief as Dennis' flinch didn't seem to disturb her too much, and she was now resting comfortably in his lap. Millie gave him a small smile.

"I don't know what it is Dennis, but I think she's taken a liking to you." Millie said, sitting back down in her seat. "I think she might have been a house cat at some point, and that's why she's so friendly with strangers."

Millie rose an eyebrow as she noticed Dennis' tense shoulders.

"Do you need me to move her?" Millie said ready to rise from her seat. Dennis shook his head in a negative.

"N-no! She just startled me is all. Besides, she just got comfy. I'd hate to move her now." Dennis said. Both of Millie's eyebrows shot up at this.

"You sure?" She said, noticing the worried look Coop sent his way.

"Yeah. Like we said we need to get u-used to them right? I read that positive contact with something you're not comfortable with really helps," Dennis said, the last part coming out a bit rushed as Megan softly started dragging her claw around the bit of skin she found poking out from beneath his shirt. She had to give him credit. With her claw right around his stomach he was handling it pretty well.

She slowly dragged her claw in a circular motion around his belly button, making sure to keep her pressure just light enough not to leave a mark. She shook a bit as she tried to control her giggles. She had to do something to pay him back for jostling her paw like that.

"Yup. I'm sure me and Miss Kitten are gonna be friends in no time!" Dennis said, his hands clenching his pillow under the table.

 _Oh, I'm sure we're gonna be just dandy!_  He thought, almost regretting his decision to act as a wall between Coop and the cats.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 9/1/17  
> So this is really where the updates start for me, since everything beforehand had already been posted on fanfiction.net. Expect weekly updates from this point on (hopefully). :)

Megan snickered quietly to herself as a startled scream echoed through the hall, followed by silence. Though, the silence didn't last long as soft but quick footsteps headed towards Millie's opened door. She looked up with a lazy smile as a red-faced Coop glared at her from the doorway, fists shaking at his sides.

Her lazy smile turned into a wide smirk as she lifted her uninjured paw and made a snipping motion with her fingers. His eyes went wide and she shook with silent laughter as his lips puckered in restrained rage. He opened his mouth to say something, most likely a threat of some sort, when she lifted her left finger to her lips and let out a soft ssshhh, using her tail to point at Millie's sleeping form.

The next few seconds consisted of a stare off between the two of them. Megan, still giving him a toothy smirk, and Coop, trying to shoot lasers from his eyes. It ended about 8 seconds later when Coop suddenly turned on his heel and headed for his room. His jaw was clenched and stride almost at a stomp by the time Megan heard his door open then close with a soft click.

Megan let herself soak in that little victory for a moment before laying her head back down and curling her tail comfortably around her body. She had been hoping for him to notice when everyone woke up in the morning, but she guessed there was no accounting for a human's bladder. Still, it wasn't a total lost. The memory of that constipated look on his face was definitely gonna bring her a good laugh for the next few days.

Huh, she wondered if he'd be telling his little friend about-

"Aaah!" She heard Dennis yell as Coop no doubt woke him, only to see his own hair cut.

 _Ah, yes._  She thought to herself.  _Totally worth it._

She peeked over at the sleeping girl beside her, checking to see if she'd woken up, before laying back down and allowing herself to drift into unconsciousness. This was going to be fun.

* * *

Kat nearly choked on his Frisky Bits when the boys walked in looking like they'd been attacked by the most vindictive barber this side of the Earth. Their hair had huge chunks cut out of it in seemingly random parts of their head, and what looked to be little bows tied at the back, holding together what little bits of long hair they had left.

His head quickly swerved to his sister and she gave him a proud, yet devious smile.

 _My point_. He could practically hear her thinking. He gave her a smirk as he leaned a little closer and whispered:

"It doesn't count unless they freak out"

Megan scowled for a sec before looking him directly in the eyes and sticking her tongue out at him. He gawked in mock disgust before letting out a low snicker. Goodness will this be fun.

He'd barely moved his head fast enough to catch the shocked looks on the father and Millie's faces. The man had almost dropped the pan he was holding when he glanced over his shoulder to see the boys sitting at the table. He slowly placed the pan down on the stove top and turning completely to gawk open mouthed at them. Millie was no better with her hand still holding a lifted spoon to her mouth, now too enraptured by her brother and friend's new appearance to continue eating.

The boys for the most part managed to look somewhat casual as they grabbed their bowls of cereal and began eating, making sure to avoid all eye contact. Their plan to play it cool, however, was destroyed when the father sat down at the table and let out a frantic:

"What did you two do to your hair!"

The boys froze and glanced between each other before lifting their gaze to the father's startled one.

"We um…" Coop started. "Wanted to try cutting our own hair but… we got a little carried away."

"Carried away?!" Was the parent's reply. "You two look like your hair was cut by a blind toddler with scissors!"

And that was the breaking point for Millie. She almost spilled her cereal as her body shook hard with unrestrained laughter. The boys tensed with the most uncomfortable expressions on their face as Millie weakly pointed a finger at their hair as she laughed.

"A- Haha!- blind toddler! Hahaha!"

"Why would you boys-"

"A blind toddler would have done better than this!" Millie interrupted, still laughing.

"Ahem" Burt said, glancing down at his daughter.

"Okay. Pfft! I'm sorry! I'll stop! I just need to- Hahaha! Oh, my gosh!" Millie let out another few laughs before calming down to a few shaky chuckles. Once those had quieted down she placed a hand over her mouth to keep from giggling at the boys' expense. Burt waited until he was sure she was done before continuing.

"As I was saying. Why would you boys think to do that? And what sort of hairstyle were you trying to do?"

"Yeah," Millie added, still giggling a bit. "Is the 'attacked by raccoon' look in season? Haha!"

Burt gave his daughter a warning look before looking back at the boys, who both looked embarrassed and uncomfortable.

"Well dad we were going for the crazy Rockstar look but we sorta realized it wasn't for us."

"I bet." Burt said, letting out a long sigh. "Listen I'm gonna call our barber and first thing tomorrow morning we're getting you two straightened out. Until then just try not to do anything else to your hair. We're gonna give George enough of a heart attack when he sees this."

"Right." Coop said, sinking lower into his seat. God, he wasn't gonna live it down when George sees this. He'd be mentioning it every time they go into the shop from now on. When he glanced over at Dennis he looked similarly mortified.

* * *

Coop groaned as once again he found a dead rat inside one of his shoes. This was the third time this week and it was starting to get on his nerves. It had been almost a week since they'd started having tea with Millie and since then the cats have taken full opportunity to mess with them at any given moment. Today's haircut was their most devious yet and he had no doubt it was gonna get worse.

He'd found the first rat in his baseball cap when his dad had asked him to put all his clothes in the wash. The hat had been laying on the floor in the living room when he found it and as soon as he picked it up he was greeted with the horrid scent of dead rodent. His dad, who had been reading in his chair at the time, told him that he'd read that cats often bring "gifts" to their masters as a sign of affection. Coop had smiled at the time, trying to hide his annoyance.

"I guess they're warming up to me. Hehehe..."

It didn't help that Kat was sitting at his food bowl watching the exchange with a smirk on his face. Coop could feel the anger spike inside him like a fever but pushed it down far enough to send Kat a smile.

"Thanks Mr. Kat, though next time I'd really prefer a baseball instead," Coop said as he used the baseball cap to grab the rat and walked outside to throw it in the garbage.

Coop frowned hard at the memory. Even after washing that cap three times he couldn't get the smell of dead rat out of it. In the end, he had to throw the thing away. The little hairless freak knew that cap his favorite.

Coop wasn't the only one getting "gifts" lately. Just yesterday he heard Dennis yell after finding two mice hidden in his sleeping bag.

This little "passive aggressive battle" as he'd taken to calling it was taking a huge toll on his nerves, especially since they had yet to see the cats doing anything suspicious. All they do is hang around Millie and nap in her room. It's been tying his brain into knots trying to figure out what they're up to. He sighed and lifted his free hand to card through his hair, only to feel the empty patches the cats left behind and become more aggravated because of it.

Coop groaned loudly before remembering the dead rodent in his hands and was about to flush it down the drain when he froze suddenly, a rush of thoughts flooding his mind.

Could they a have already done it? Are they just biding their time? Are they too late to stop it? What if-

"Hey Coop-"

"Ahh!"

Coop flinched and dropped the rat as he heard his dad's voice from behind him.

"Oh..." He said trying to appear calm. "What's up, dad?"

His dad gave him a concerned stare.

"Are you alright Coop? You look a bit tense."

Coop tried to look a bit more relaxed as he bent down to grab the rat again and drop it into the toilet.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just not a lot of sleep lately."

His dad gave him a dubious stare but nodded anyway.

"Okay, but if you need to talk about anything you know you can talk to me." He said, trying for an encouraging smile, but it looked strained as the concern showed clearly in his eyes.

Coop nodded his head, trying to look more cheerful but could tell it probably looked more forced than anything. His dad nodded back and preceded down the hallway to the stairs, probably to start on lunch.

Coop's smile fell as he watched his dad's retreating figure, and was struck with the strong desire to tell him everything. He wanted to tell him about the cats and how tired and wound up he feels not knowing anything about what they're doing. Like he's just playing their game, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He had gone into this plan expecting to find something, now all they've found out is how many imaginary sugars Kat liked in his tea.

Coop was once again dragged from his thoughts as someone knocked on the open door. He looked up to see Dennis with his own rat in hand, hanging by its tail as he tried to keep it as far from his body as possible.

"I guess you got the cat's special 'breakfast in bed' too?" Dennis said dryly as he quickly dropped the rat into to toilet and ran to the sink to wash his hands, scrubbing hard as if the rat had had the plague on it. Coop chuckled and stood beside him as he washed his hands too. Knowing Kat, he  _would_  give them plagued rats.

"Yup. I'm starting to wonder where he's getting them all."

"The hairless freak's probably got a whole bag of them hidden somewhere." Dennis said with a shrug. Coop groaned in response.

"Ugh, I hope not in the house. Smells bad enough waking up to one, let alone a bag full."

Dennis made a dramatic barfing noise in response, getting a chuckle from Coop.

"Well I guess it could be worse. He hasn't put any horse heads in our beds or anything. If anything, I'm surprised he's being so tame. Maybe it's the other one doing this?"

"Maybe" Coop said as he dried his hands and made his way towards the door.

Just as his foot reached the hallway there was a loud clank as a metal bucket fell from overhead and covered him in sand. Coop coughed and sputtered as the sand made a large dust cloud around him. He could already feel the sand seeping into his clothes, making him itch, and it took every ounce of restraint in his body not to scream in frustration.

Coop tried to take a deep breath, only to cough some more because of the dust. He heard the door down the hall open and made sure to stomp his frustrations down as deep as he could.

"Coop?" Millie said as she walked into the hallway. She looked at him bemusedly as Coop shook some of the sand off himself and onto the floor, creating a bigger cloud of dust and adding to the already large pile of sand on the floor.

"Why are you covered in Mr. Kat's kitty litter?" Millie said, looking at him the same way one would a man talking to himself. In Millie's arms, on her designated pillow, laid the new cat, and on the ground next to her was Kat. Both looking to the world like the most innocent little house cats.

Coop's body tensed as he tried not to wonder whether this was fresh or used littler before turning to his sister.

"Oh, me and Dennis are just pulling some pranks on each other," He said, trying to pull off a genuine looking smile. "Don't worry we'll clean it up."

Millie looked skeptical for a moment before nodding her head and turning back towards her room.

"Okay, but if it's not cleaned up soon daddy won't let you out till Summer" She said as she closed the door behind her. Coop kept his smile up till he heard the soft click of the door closing.

Coop groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose as he slowly let out a long breath of air.

"Fucking perfect," He said under his breath as he started walking towards his room for a change of clothes. Dennis, seeing his friend's impending meltdown, went downstairs to grab the broom and dustpan. They needed to hurry before Coop's dad came back through. As he headed downstairs to the first floor closet he idly wondered when exactly the cats had set up that trap without them noticing.

* * *

Kat and Megan waited patiently as they listened to the soft sound of Millie's breathing. Once they were sure she'd entered a deep enough sleep they both slipped into the cat house and went down to Kat's lab. As they got off the elevator and headed to the work bench Megan smiled at the little score board she had posted on lab wall the other day. Currently neither of them had gotten a single score, but she was still happy having put a little something up in her brother's lab. It reminded her of when they shared a work space under Mimi's apprenticeship.

"Megan," Aiden said from across the room.

"Coming!" Megan scurried over on all fours (threes) and skidded to a stop at her brother's side, staring wide eyed at the container in his paws. In his paws was the Irken power core Megan had been waiting for since she started this project. The Irkens were known for their stinginess with their technology, almost as well known as the Catonians, and this power core was one of the best in the market. It had taken 8 favors, three different clients, and some rank pulling from Aiden to get their paws on it.

They both looked at each other with huge smiles as they reached over to the work bench and grabbed their safety gloves and goggles. Aiden quickly inputted the code, both of them squirming with excitement, as they watched the metal lid slide back. Just as the lid slid over a bright ray of light leaked through and a wave of electricity filled the air. Megan wasn't sure if the goosebumps on her skin was from her excitement or the energy waves coming off the core.

"Wow" Megan said squinting into the glowing box. She could barely make out a circular object, like a ball, sitting in the center.

"Yeah…" Aiden said in response. He had seen energy cores before, developed by the Catonian engineers, but they were never as powerful as this. The air was practically vibrating with energy. Aiden and Megan locked eyes for a moment before letting the lid slide back into place, returning the air slightly back to normal.

"This is it," Megan said in awe. "We're almost there."

"Almost," Aiden said with a nod. "But we still have to get the core to your ship. I ran a few test and the core's Irken technology won't react well going through my teleporter. I'll have to carry it on paw, and no," He said as Megan opened her mouth. "You can't come with."

"But-,"

"If Millie notices you're gone she'll definitely go looking, and that'd be all the excuse those idiots need to follow her and look for our base."

Megan let out a long sigh and looked at the container longingly before nodding her head. Aiden smiled and placed a paw on her shoulder.

"I won't finish assembling without you. I'm just gonna connect the power core to the engine and make sure it's functioning well with our equipment. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours."

He gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze then went around collecting the pieces he'd need and sending them through the transporter. Megan sighed again as she passed him some of the pieces closest to her.

"Besides," He said as he transported a few more items. "I'm sure you'll be able to entertain yourself with our human targets while I'm gone. I'll make an exception and let you score a point while I'm away" He said, sending her a smug grin.

She scoffed but returned the smile.

"Sure. I guess I'll try to have a little fun while you're away."

"That's the spirit." He said, transporting the last item and readying the container to be carried. He was just about to exit through the elevator when his monitor screen flashed to life, revealing a very awake and worried looking Millie.

"Mr. Kat? Ms. Kitten? Where'd you go?" She said looking around the room. There was a worried pout on her face and Aiden could tell they only had a few minutes before she started screaming.

"You distract her while I slip out the bedroom window."

"Got it." Megan said giving him a salute. She quickly ran to the elevator and as soon as it brought her back up to the cat house she hopped over to the bed and walked over towards the doorway, directing Millie's attention away from the window.

"Meow" Megan said, drawing Millie's attention from under the bed where she was looking.

"Miss Kitten!" Millie said running over to her. Megan was immediately swept into a gentle hug from her "caretaker".

"Oh, I was so worried." Millie mumbled into her little shoulder as she held her close. Megan leaned in close and meowed as she watched her brother slip over to the windowsill. She gave him a little wave before he slipped out the window and headed towards the backyard, slipping out of sight.

"Now if only Mr. Kat wouldn't keep disappearing" Millie said, head still in her shoulder. Megan tensed for a moment, wondering if Millie had heard Aiden leave.

"It's rude to leave our guest unattended, especially a pretty lady like you." Millie said, putting Megan down on the edge of the bed. "I just hope he's not hiding in the basement. There're some big spiders down there."

Megan's shoulders relaxed a little at that statement. Millie probably thought Aiden was hiding in the house.

"Oh well." Millie said with a sigh. "I guess we'll just have to have our tea party without him."

Millie gasped suddenly and rushed over to the little toy chest she keeps next to her sewing machine on the right side wall.

"I almost forgot the new dress I made for you!" Millie turned around with a big smile revealing a  **heavily**  feathered ball gown starting with yellow bust but shifting to pink at the hem where the feathers were. The feathers flared up like startled pink hatchlings and to top it off there was a big yellow bow at the waist.

It was the fluffiest thing Megan had ever seen and she instantly cringed at the thought of wearing something so restricting, or at least she would have cringed, if Millie wasn't looking directly at her with the biggest prideful smile she'd ever seen. She looked like she just finished constructing a perfectly functioning motherboard on her first try, and Megan could practically feel the happiness radiating off her.

So, focusing on her little "master's" face, she tried to give her the happiest, most approving smile she could muster. Her face hurt from the strain.

"Ooh I knew you'd love it! And you're going to look so beautiful in it!" Millie said, bouncing in excitement. Megan's forced smile softened at Millie's enthusiasm. She wondered if that was how she looked when she completed a job for Mini. She supposed wearing a horribly fluffy dress was worth it if she got to see Millie smile like that.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're getting close.

9/8/17

* * *

Megan instantly regretted agreeing to this.

 _Well…_  She looked up to Millie's happy face.

She almost regretted it anyway.

There they sat in hot plastic chairs, in the humid Summer air wearing thick fluffy dresses. Megan was itching like crazy to move, jump, run, to do  _something_  other than just sit there, but not only was Millie watching but the horribly fluffy dress made it practically impossible to move her legs without tripping. Megan idly wondered if Millie made it like that purposely so she couldn't run off. They'd only been out there for half an hour and Megan was sure she was gonna go crazy.

At least, she thought, the food Millie made was good. She didn't know much about human cuisine but she was sure Millie could win a competition with these "ladyfinger" things. She had even smashed up some frisky bits into Megan's batch so she'd enjoy them more, and Megan was loving it. Well, she would be loving it, if reaching for the fingers didn't involve shifting like a bush in the wind every time she tried to scoot closer to the middle of the table. Though, she was grateful for the effort at least.

The "tea" was also good, she had to admit. Millie must have noticed how much she enjoyed the orange juice from the other day and had made sure to bring some more for today's tea party. Again, Megan was grateful.

_Now if only this damn dress didn't make it so hard to grab my-_

Megan was dragged from her thoughts as Millie let out a soft polite cough.

"You know, Miss Kitten, you might be a good luck charm," Millie said with a smile. Megan tilted her head in response. "Since you came Coop and Mr. Kat have been getting along a lot better. Sure, Coop's still a little weird but I think that's normal for older brothers. I'm just glad him and Mr. Kat haven't been fighting lately, and I get the chance to have tea with him and Dennis! It's nice to have a full table sometimes. Though…"

Millie paused for a moment, taking a sip from her cup. There was a faraway look in her eyes. Megan tilted her head in bemusement. It took Millie a moment to continue her thought.

"I sometimes wonder if he actually enjoys being around me. I know he's just being nice so he and Dennis can be outside and impress daddy," Millie put her cup down, still staring into space. "I kind of miss when we were little and he wanted to be around me more. Dennis used to play with me too. It was nice. I guess they're too old to hang around me now."

Millie shrugged and placed another cookie on her plate. Megan stared at her, she felt like a stone was sitting in her stomach. Megan tried to shift her dress around, so she could walk over to Millie, when a drop of water landed on her nose, then another, and another. She looked up to see Millie peering up at the sky with a frown. There was a soft drizzle starting.

"Oh shoot," Millie said, grabbing the plates off the table. "The forecast didn't say anything about rain today. Come on, Miss Kitten. Let's get inside before you get soaked."

Millie shifted the plates from one hand to another and lifted Megan with her free hand. Megan was mildly impressed with the girl's balancing skills as she quickly got the stack of plates and Megan inside and placed the plates on the nearby counter.

They both looked out the glass sliding doors to the drizzling rain, soaking the little plastic tea table Millie kept outside for their parties. Millie let out a little sigh and gently held Megan with both arms.

"Well, I guess we'll just go into the living room and watch TV." Millie said, walking to the living room. Millie immediately headed towards the couch, plopped down, and grabbed a couch pillow for Megan to sit on.

"There you go Miss Kitten," Millie said giving Megan a soft pat on the head. "And the best part is since daddy's with the boys at the barber's, we get the tv to ourselves for a while!"

Millie flipped through the channels until it landed on the "My Little Pony" show Millie enjoyed so much. Megan groaned internally but settled in none the less. She didn't mind the show per say, there were a ton of other annoying shows Millie could be watching, but the theme song always got in her head and wouldn't leave for hours. She'd be cover her ears if it didn't aggravate her paw.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the sound of the front door unlocking was enough to draw her attention from the annoying theme song.

"Millie we're home!" The father called from the doorway. Millie immediately hopped off the couch to run to her daddy but paused to face Megan with an excited look on her face. Megan didn't have time to ponder why before the others started making their way to the living room and Millie let out a loud cough to get everyone's attention. Megan only got a moments look at the boys wearing baseball caps before Millie called for everyone's attention.

"Presenting one of the most beautiful, sweet, and well-dressed kitties on the planet! Miss Kitten!" Millie bellowed out, stressing out each adjective. Megan cringed at the grandeur she put into each word and cringed even harder at the dumbfounded look on the other's faces.

Well, the expressions didn't last long as the father's turned into a look of amusement while the boys looked like they were holding back extreme laughter.

"Wow, sweetie, this is a really great job!" The father said walking up to her. Megan tried not to fidget under his gaze. She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment and desperately hoped it didn't show.

"Yeah," Coop added, his mouth twitching with laughter. "We're gonna have beat the boys off you"

"I real Bell of the ball," Dennis said giving a little bow, which Megan suspected was to hide his laughing. She could feel her claws barring as their bodies started to shake with silent laughter.

_Oh, just wait until I-_

"Really, Millie, this is amazing." Millie's dad said crouching down to gently feel at the fabric of the dress, blocking Megan's view of the boys. "It's such a pretty design, and you put so much detail into it!"

Megan could see Millie blushing with pride to the right of her and tried to relax under the father's scrutiny.

"Millie," Mr. Burtonburger said, turning to her. "Why don't you start making designs for people? With your talent, you could be rolling in the big bucks."

Millie's smile fell a bit.

"Well… I'd like to, but I don't know anyone who'd model for me."

"Have no fear, we'd love to do it!" Mr. Burtonburger said gesturing to the boys behind him. The boys both tensed, but seeing Millie's hopeful gaze, sent her tight smiles of approval. Millie jumped up in excitement, but then quickly came down with a small frown on her face.

"But, I still don't have a female model."

"What about Mrs. M-," Dennis started, but was cut off when Coop gave him a sharp elbow to the side. Coop leaned in a little closer, and with Megan's hearing she could hear him whisper: "Think about what you were about to say"

Dennis paused for a moment before whispering "Oh" and cringing like he'd seen something hideous. He was no doubt imagining Mrs. Munson trying to model. She might have found it funny if the thought didn't make her cringe as well. She'd only seen glimpses of that women from when she'd wave at Millie from across the fence, but from Aiden's description she seemed just as horrid on the inside as she was on the out.

"So," Millie said looking at the boys. "How did the barber's go? And what's with the hats?"

Megan delighted a bit at the boys' looks of horror and then embarrassment. They both looked to the ground and let out a faint: "Nothing" and then tried to turn around towards the stairs.

Mr. Burtonburger, noticing their retreat, headed them off before they could reach the stairs and made a little turned motion with his finger.

"Oh no you boys don't. It's your own fault you got these haircuts so you don't get to hide in your room." Mr. Burtonburger said herding them back into the living room. Both boys groaned and Megan smirked a little. They were both sending her embarrassed glares from under their caps. Megan sent them a wink and made a subtle snipping motion with her good hand. Coop opened his mouth to say something but was cut off.

"Alright boys, off with the hats." Mr. Burtonburger said, interrupting what Megan was sure was going to be an insult.

Coop and Dennis both groaned again before sullenly removing their caps and revealing two extremely close buzz cuts. There was barely a centimeter of hair left on their heads and Megan almost laughed aloud at the bright red blushes staining their cheeks.

Millie on the other hand didn't even try for such restraint. She was initially silent for a few seconds before falling to the floor laughing, her hands wrapped around her stomach as she giggled on the ground.

Both of the boys made a move to put their caps back on but Mr. Burtonburger snatched them both out of their hands and placed them on the hallway coatrack.

"Nope." He said, passing the boys and heading for his recliner chair. They both looked to him pleadingly and he responded with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Sorry boys but you're gonna have to get used to it till your hair grows back, so you might as well come and join us for some tv. Just be happy you've got an extra week of break, what with the construction going on." As if to demonstrate his lack of care he leaned back into his recliner and started watching what Millie had on the tv.

"Construction?" Coop asked from the doorway.

"Yeah. The school got a generous donation from the Membrane family, so they're using it to improve the science and computer labs." The boys' eyes lit up with the prospect of more break time. "It'll give you boys just enough time to grow some of your hair back."

Megan screwed up her face trying not to laugh at the accidental put down. Millie, on the other hand, only laughed harder.

The boys slumped for a moment before begrudgingly walking further into the room and sitting on the couch beside herself and Millie, who had finally gotten herself off the ground and stopped laughing. Megan idly wondered who out of the three of them looked sillier. Her in her dress or the boys whose hair was practically nonexistent.

"Millie, can we please change the channel?" Coop said gesturing to the tv, which was currently showing candy colored ponies. "I've already got a buzz cut. I'd really appreciate some mercy here."

Millie tilted her head in thought for a few moments before relenting and passing the remote to her brother.

"Fine I'll give you a break this once."

Coop happily grabbed the remote and switched the channel to something with a human in a goofy helmet shooting a laser gun at some little green creatures she assumed were supposed to be aliens. Coop leaned back into his seat and let out a content sigh.

"Now this," He said, glancing at Megan. "Is my kind of show."

"Same here," Dennis added. "Almost as good as that episode where he-."

Megan rolled her eyes and tuned out the rest of the conversation. If they thought she was gonna get worked up over such a stupid show then they were really running out of ideas.

Megan slowly stretched herself out and laid down on her pillow. If she had to watch this stupid show for half an hour then she was gonna get comfortable, maybe with luck she'd fall asleep.

_I bet Aiden's having fun with the equipment right now._

She glanced up at the tv where the human with the stupid helmet was now saving a woman from a large red blob like creature, and spouting stupid one liners is he did so. Megan let out a puff of air.

_Please get home soon. I really don't want to suffer alone._

* * *

"And… there!" Kat said as he inserted the power core into the energy chamber. With all the finished pieces they had teleported it had only taken a little rearranging to get everything set up. In fact, he'd gotten finished much earlier than he thought he'd be.

"Now let's see… The chamber is set in place, and the shielding seems to be holding up against the core's power for now. As long as we keep the core stable and in its place, everything should be functional." He gave the energy chamber's shielding a once over and frowned at the way it practically vibrated with the strain of holding the core's power in check. Now that the core was activated the force of its power had multiplied times ten, and with their weaker technology the shields were only just holding up.

_Our extra strength shields will have to do. Fat chance we'll be able to sneak anymore Irken technology past their security._

Kat cringed, remembering the stories of those who last tried to steal from the Irkens and got caught. The Irkens' SIR units had hardly left anything left of those guys and the tales of their disfigured bodies were known all throughout the solar system. The only reason Megan had even been able to get this was because she had a few former clients that owed her a favor, one of which knew a guy who knew an Irken transporter, and a few other clients who were in the business of illegal transportation.

As long as the Irkens' thought this core had been sent to an Irken invader then no one would bat an eye.

Kat smirked looking over the last few pieces they'd need to assemble before the Splicer was up and running. They were so close to the finish that he could practically taste victory. He almost wanted to start working on it by himself before reminding himself that this was Megan's machine. She more than anyone deserved to be here putting the last pieces together, and when the time comes they'll be side by side to except their reward for this planet.

With that happy thought in mind Kat gave the power core one last look before heading out of the ship and back towards the house. Megan was going to be so excited.

Soon they'd be back to working together regularly and he could kiss this planet-

Suddenly an image of Millie and his soft pillow by her windowsill came to mind and he felt his stomach drop.

He shook his head and tried to will the thoughts away. He'd done too much to have second thoughts now. Besides, with the amount of money this planet will make for them he was sure the Emperor would allow him to keep a few humans as his servants. He'd make sure to repay Millie for taking care of him.


	17. Chapter 17

Megan watched with interest as the human in the yellow shirt called up to his crew and was immediately teleported from the surface of the planet to the inside of his ship. In her short amount of time on earth she’d found that, while the humans were far below her kind in intelligence and technology, they had very interesting ideas. From what she’d seen through their television shows they have the creativity but not the knowledge needed to construct them. Hell, they were still using televisions instead of holographic projectors.

 

Luckily, after suffering through two episodes of that Blasteroid drivel the boys liked, the father had insisted on showing them where the idea for the show had come from and turned the channel to an older program, which apparently ran before he was even born. She hadn’t been paying attention when he explained the plot of the show but had given into watching it after the noise made taking a nap impossible. Thankfully, the show was not horrible, in fact, it gave her a few ideas of her own.

 

After seeing one of the characters be “beamed up”, as they called it, she was instantly fascinated. The idea of teleportation from such a distance and the safe transportation of organic matter seemed amazing. Her brother had only just finished his transportation machine and it could only send inorganic substances safely from his lab to her ship.

 

She even admitted to finding the character “Scotty” a bit charming. He was the exact opposite of Mini, yet held the same reverence for technology that he did. She idly wondered if she could find a way of sending the human recordings to him just to see his expression. She was sure she could find a way to send the humans’ prehistoric video through their computers if she just-

 

“So, what do you boys think?” The father said as the episode started winding down to its end. The captain and his crew had just defeated their foe and were heading off to find more undiscovered territory.

 

“I thought it was pretty cool, Mr. Burtonburger.” Dennis said with an excited smile.

 

“It was pretty good I guess,” Coop said, shrugging. “The effects were pretty bad though.”

 

“Well, that’s all they had back then, especially with their small budget. Remember, this is from all the way back in the 60’s.”

 

Megan pondered this for a moment.

 

That would make this show over 50 human years old. It’s impressive that half the things they envisioned became a technological reality on her planet. Half of the things they used in the show were in fact used on her ship, though by different names.

 

She sighed a bit, dreamily.

 

Now if only she could have that transporter on her ship. That’d be amazing.

 

Megan mentally vowed to get copies of this show for further inspiration.

 

The soft sound of one of the kitchen windows opening and closing brought her attention to her brother, who was just making his way from the kitchen to the couch, unbeknownst to the humans around them. She was just about to tell him about the ideas she had gotten from the show when she noticed the dejected look on his face. He seemed to be deep in thought and whatever it was wasn’t a pleasant one, so she kept quiet and allowed him to think for a while. Though, she did continue to shoot him worried glances as the next episode started.

* * *

 

Megan watched Aiden carefully as they both slipped away and headed for his lab. It was almost an hour since he got back from her ship and he still had that frustrated look on his face.

 

They both silently went about their work assembling the last pieces of the machine for Aiden to transport to her ship. The silence was more noticeable now since by this time they would have been chatting about the latest modifications they were working on. Instead Aiden walked quietly to his station and started working.

 

Megan sat down at her workbench and coughed lightly into her paw to get his attention. Aiden’s ears twitched but he didn’t turn to look at her.

 

“Aiden, did something happen while you were at the ship?”

 

“Hmm?” Aiden said, not looking away from his project. “No, nothing happened. Everything went as planned.”

 

“You sure? You’ve looked bothered by something since you came back.”

 

“It’s nothing.” He said, screwing in a bolt with a bit more force than needed. Megan opened her mouth to say something but shut it when he suddenly turned to look at her, his fangs bared. Megan’s ears flattened on her head as she backed down.

 

“Fine.” Her words came out as a cold hiss as she turned back to her work bench and started on her part of the machine.

 

Behind her Kat flinched as he saw her tail wrap around herself. His chest tightened, remembering the last time he’d seen her like that.

 

Damn it.

 

He turned back to his workbench and they both worked in silence as Kat nervously tried to think of something to say. The quiet lasted for ten long awkward minutes before Kat worked up the nerve to speak.

 

“S-sorry. I’m just a little concerned about the power core. It’s more powerful than expected and the shields are only just holding up. We’ll have to put the shields on maximum and hope for the best.”

 

Megan looked at him passively then turned back to her work.

 

“I guess that’s to be expected. The Irkens must have more powerful shields to match their core powers. The Emperor will have his paws full next time he tries an attack.” Aiden blabbered on, trying to draw Megan into conversation.

 

“I suppose so.” She said curtly, not looking up from her work.

 

“Uh…yeah,” Kat replied lamely. “Perhaps if we-.”

 

“I know you’re lying, Aiden.” Megan said shortly.

 

Kat flinched.

 

“I’m telling you the truth. The core is-.”

 

“I’ve no doubt the core is as powerful as you say. I’m talking about why you’re upset. It’s not about the core or the ship, is it?”

 

Kat opened his mouth to object but closed it as she turned to face him. Her eyes were cold and calculating and made him feel like crap.

 

“I… I just don’t want to talk about it.”

 

Kat resisted the urge to squirm as her eyes stayed on him for what felt like hours, but was in reality only a few more seconds. Finally, she turned back to her work bench and continued checking her piece for any loose ends.

 

They worked in silence for the rest of the afternoon.

* * *

 

A few hours later they had finished the final pieces of the machine and had sent them through the teleporter to Megan’s ship. They both walked quietly out of Kat’s lab and into Millie’s room. Luckily, Millie was still in the living room.

 

Kat glanced over at Megan as they made their way to the hall. It had been three hours and he still hadn’t found the nerve to speak to her. Megan had worked with cold efficiency, just as quickly and effectively as she had when they worked under Mini, but unlike then her chatter wasn’t filling the room with a bit more warmth. Her unusual silence had only made Kat more uncomfortable, crumbling Kat’s already shaky resolve to talk to her. Now that they were outside the lab, and the sounds of the other housemates surrounded them, Kat felt a little less nervous and turned to face her.

 

He paused as he noticed her favoring her paw and watched as she lifted it up to examine it.

 

He watched her silently as she flexed her right paw. He’d noticed her using it more often, without issue, and wondered if it was completely healed yet. He opened his mouth to ask as much but closed it as he noticed the cold glare she was throwing his way. She must have caught him staring.

 

They stared at each other for a moment before Megan turned and continued into the hall on all fours, likely to join Millie on the couch. Kat let out a sigh and followed behind. Maybe he could talk to her later?

* * *

 

Kat inwardly groaned as tweedledee and tweedledum continued to follow him through the house. Millie had decided that now would be a great time to play scavenger hunt, and since the rain was still coming down, they settled for trying to find random things around the house with the father telling them random items to find.

 

Kat didn’t know why they couldn’t just sit quietly, but he supposed it worked out since sitting by his sister right now would have made for an uncomfortable affair. He’d honestly been avoiding her a bit since they had come back downstairs; keeping his part of the search a few extra feet away or volunteering to search other rooms when Millie asked who was going where. Luckily, Millie just chalked his understanding of her questions to him being a particularly intelligent pet. Unfortunately, since he wasn’t checking with her and Megan that meant he’d have to check rooms with the pain in the asses.

 

Kat smirked a bit, getting a small bit of pleasure in knowing why they were keeping such a close eye on him. They were getting desperate. It’s been almost two weeks and they still haven’t found a single clue to what he and Megan have been doing. Honestly it was kind of sad, or at least it would be if he could gather enough sympathy to care about their feelings.

 

Suddenly Kat let out a sneeze and both boys turned to him suddenly. Seeing their tense bodies, he chuckled and continued his search for the double A batteries the father had sent them out for. Honestly, Kat just figured the father was just sending them off to find his lost things and needed the kids to be busy for a while. It took a moment for the boys to do the same, both staring at his back for a few more seconds before continuing their search of the attic.

 

Kat chuckled again as he spied Coop giving him an angry glare over his shoulder. It must be especially hard for him, Kat thought, knowing how action oriented the boy was. Sitting like this must be murder to him. Again, he’d almost feel bad if it wasn’t so satisfying to see the brat so flustered.

 

He glanced over at Dennis and noticed he at least kept his stare a little subtler. He currently had his back to them both. He was looking at an old shiny vase the father kept up here, but when Kat squinted he could tell the boy was watching him through the reflection. Kat smirked and turned to face him, his smile fully showing off his fangs, and waved. He tried to hide it, but Kat could see how he flinched.

 

His attempt at espionage discovered, Dennis placed the vase back in its box and continued to search around the room.

 

Kat laughed and watched as the boys tried their best to act like they weren’t trying to watch him. It kind of reminded him of the times he and Megan would try to watch Mini work on a private request without being spotted. Now that he was older he bet they looked pretty silly back then. Having no idea how to spy on someone, they were always caught and would be sent to bed immediately afterwards, with the hollow threat of Mini’s wrench hanging over their heads.

 

Kat felt himself starting to smile when his mind wandered back to Megan, then it completely vanished when he remembered the look on her face back in his lab.

 

Not wanting to think about it right now, he returned to looking in the stacks of boxes the littered the attic floors, but stopped when he heard something clank to the floor behind him, followed by a muffled swear from Coop. He turned his head to see that the idiot had dropped a heavy box on his foot and was currently covering his mouth to keep from yelling.

 

Imbecile.

 

Despite continuing his task his mind continued to wander onto other things. It’s been a little over two Earth years since he’d been sent to this planet.

 

_And almost 5 since I’d made Megan upset like that._

 

No. No! He wasn’t going to think about that right now. He glanced over at Coop and Dennis who were now sitting on the ground with their own boxes. He’d been on this planet for two whole years and those two were still as annoying as ever, and as if they’d heard him they both looked up at him with identical glares. Kat scoffed and turned back around.

 

He was surprised, honestly, how long this had taken. The initial estimate for this planet’s conquer had been a year and a half at most, which is what prompted the Emperor’s anger those two weeks ago. Two years and he was embarrassed to say he had built a routine of sorts. He’d think of a way to make this planet more suitable for the other Catonians, get close to completing it, only to be stopped at the last minute by these two lunkheads. Of course, Kat would chalk all that up to his broken collar, low resources, and the planet’s abysmal technology.

 

Nonetheless, as infuriating a routine it was, it was still a routine and he wondered what he would be doing when all of this was over. He’d in no way would miss this planet but he found himself at a bit of a loss on what to do afterward, and with the silence of the attic his mind wouldn’t stop wondering. He had been away from his planet, and everything other than the invaders for so long the thought of returning felt almost awkward. He pushed that thought away and focused on what he could do.

 

Perhaps he could start working in the technical department? His mind wandered to his ex and he immediately dismissed that idea. He’d rather stay here than work alongside her every day. His mind then went to Mini and he almost laughed aloud at the idea. The old akha would probably hiss at him as soon as he walked through the door. Perhaps he and Megan could-

 

Megan. There it was again. His mind going to things he’d _really_ rather not be dealing with right now! He growled in frustration and allowed his claws to tighten around whatever he was holding until it almost cracked.

 

Damn this planet and damn those brats for keeping me here so long!

 

Becoming an invader was supposed to help him get more options, but now that he was near the end it was almost like the only thing he knew how to do was this!

 

His inner rage was interrupted when Millie suddenly popped her head through the attic’s opening and called for them.

 

“Daddy wants all of us in the living room!” Millie called then disappeared back down the stairs. Coop sighed as he stood up from the floor and stretched out his back. Kat glared at him as he did so, hoping his glare would somehow cause the boy to drop dead.

 

He walked past the boys, sneering at them as he passed, and jumped down the opening to the hallway floor. He’d have to get away from them before he ripped them to shreds. They were too close to the end for him to throw it all way, no matter how satisfying it would be.

 

He heard the boys follow behind him to the living room and walked a bit faster to get more distance between them. Unfortunately, this meant walking up to his sister and Millie much faster then he realized, and he almost pumped into her doing so. He stopped just before colliding into her and awkwardly backtracked a step to put some space between them. Megan looked at him the same way she would someone who was using a drill when they needed a hammer, then turned to look at the father who was scurrying around the front door.

 

“What’s up, dad?” Coop said as he and Dennis entered the living room.

 

“Dennis’ dad called. He needs me to pick him up from the highway. His car broke down and he doesn’t have enough money to get a taxi home.” Mr. Burtonburger said grabbing his phone and umbrella.

 

“Is he okay?!” Dennis said, worry clear on his face.

 

“Don’t you worry, Dennis, your dad’s just fine. It’s just a little engine trouble. He didn’t want to risk it driving in the rain. The Robinsons are letting me borrow their truck so I can pick him and the car up. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.” Mr. Burtonburger turned to them and gave the kids a stern look.

 

“Ms. Munson will be here in a bit to watch over you guys, and you’d _better_ be on your best behavior while she’s here.”

 

The boys looked like they swallowed a pound of lemons while Millie answered her father with a happy affirmative.

 

“Alright. Well, I’m off. Be good.” He directed the last part specifically to the boys before closing the door. Not two minutes later the door reopened and like a nightmare come true, Ms. Munson stomped through the door wearing a hideous black rain coat that only proved to make her look more villainous.

 

The boys both let out a frightened noise and stepped back as she entered the house.

 

“Well, Burtonburger? Aren’t you going to be useful and take my coat?” Ms. Munson said grumpily as she stood dripping in the front hall.

 

“Oh, uh, right.”

 

Coop walked over to Ms. Munson like one would a dangerous animal and took her coat from her. Ms. Munson let out an annoyed grunt as he slowly backed away from her to hang the coat in the hallway closet.

 

“Oh, Ms. Munson it’s so good to see you!” Millie said, walking over to hug the old woman.

 

“Millie, it’s good to see you too!” Ms. Munson said softly as she returned the hug. Kat could see Megan squint in confusion as the old woman treated the kids like night and day.

 

“I can’t wait to show you the new designs I made!”

 

“And I can’t wait to see them, dear.” She said, giving Millie a soft pat on the head. Her face instantly went ice cold as she regarded the boys.

 

“Why don’t you two be good host and get us some drinks?” She said, shooing them off to the kitchen as she and Millie walked over to the living room couch.

 

The boys looked like they wanted to argue, but thought better of it and nodded their heads.

 

“Yes, Ms. Munson.” They both said in unison. Munson gave them a stern nod in response and watched as they walked into the kitchen.

 

“I’ll be right back. I just need to grab my sketchbook!” Millie said excitedly as she went up the stairs to her room. Ms. Munson smiled and leaned further back into the couch as she waited.

 

Kat’s mouth almost dropped at how perfect an opportunity this was. The old woman hadn’t even noticed him or Megan sitting in the room with her, and with every other family member out of the way it was now or never. He turned to Megan and tilted his head towards the front window. She nodded and together they both slipped out, softly closing the window behind them.


	18. Chapter 18

Coop groaned as he and Dennis set up a serving plate of drinks for Millie and Old Lady Munson.

“Dennis, you’re so lucky not to live next to her. Since she’s next door she’s dad’s go to emergency babysitter.” Coop scowled down at the drinks on the plate and added some ice cubes from the fridge. One time he’d forgotten to put ice cubes in and the women lectured him for 5 whole minutes on the importance of proper hosting.

Of course, he’d expected his dad to have called someone over to watch them, and he couldn’t really be mad at him for calling the old ugly bat. They just had the misfortune of living next to the most unpleasant woman on the planet. Why couldn’t they live next to one of those nice old ladies from tv? The ones who baked the neighboring kids cookies and had candies in their purse? Heck, living next to the Grinch would have been more pleasant.

Dennis cringed and let out a little groan. Yeah, he was happy he lived a few doors down.

“Well we’re 15 now, maybe your dad will start letting you watch Millie on your own soon?” Dennis said hopefully. Coop scoffed as he opened the fridge to find a lemon.

“Fat chance of that now. He’s still got that window alarm stowed in the closet in case I run off again.” Coop grabbed the lemon and closed the fridge door with a little more force than necessary.

“Let’s just get these drinks to the ladies. Maybe she’ll just let us hide away in your room till your dad gets back? I don’t think my manners will hold out if we have to stay with Ms. Munson the whole time.” Dennis said, looking like he’d swallowed something foul.

“Heh, yeah. I’m still surprised you held still with that cat in your lap.”

They both walked back into the living room and was greeted, thankfully, with the sight of Ms. Munson snoozing on the couch. They were just about to put down the plate and escape to Coop’s room when they noticed the distinct lack of hairless rats hanging out in the living room.

“Maybe they’re upstairs with Millie?” Dennis whispered, heading for the stairs.

Coop looked at something over to the right and scowled deeply. He put a hand on Dennis shoulder to stop him and pointed to a window near the front door.

“Dad always locks the windows before leaves the house. He’s been doing it since he saw an article on house break ins.” And low and behold, that window was the only one unlocked.

Dennis nodded, a determined look on his face.

“This is the first time they’ve both been out, which means-”

“Whatever’s going on is happening soon.”

They both made their way towards the stairs when one of the floorboards let out a loud creak. They both froze in fear and glanced behind them at Ms. Munson who’d jolted a bit at the noise. They tried to race up the stairs but Ms. Munson’s voice stopped them.

“And where are you to going, running off so fast?” She said, glaring at them from her seat.

“Oh, um, nowhere Ms. Munson.” Coop responded. “We were just heading up to my room to read some comic books.”

“Mmhhm. Don’t you two even think about leaving my sight. Your father told me about your little trip through the forest,” Coop cringed hard in embarrassment. He hadn’t expected him to tell the old crown about it. Did he tell the other parents too?! Now everyone’s gonna think he’s a screw up. Well, even more of a screw up anyway.

“And don’t think that cause he’s not here you can go sneaking off. I’ve got my eye on you two!” She said, wagging a fat finger at them.

The boys glanced at each other, pinched expressions on their faces, and slowly walked back down the stairs. Ms. Munson nodded her head and gestured to the seats on the opposite side of the couch.

“You two are gonna be good little host and sit here till your fathers arrive. Got it?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” They said glumly in unison.

Ms. Munson let out a grunt in response, which sounded disturbingly close to a growl. The boys both tried to discreetly scoot themselves as far away from her side of the couch as possible. They wouldn’t be surprised if she actually did bite at them.

Soon Millie came skipping down the stairs, completely unaware of the tense atmosphere.

“Oh, I’m so excited! I’ve only been able to show daddy these designs.” She suddenly noticed Coop and Dennis still in the living room and her smile grew larger. “I didn’t think you would stay. Thanks!”

She said it with such genuine gratitude it made Coop wish he could stay, despite how badly he needed to get outside.

“No problem Millie. We’d be happy to look at your designs.” Coop said, giving his baby sister a one arm hug.

Millie giggled and excitedly started going through her sketch book for her newest pages. She stopped at one of them which had a, Coop had to admit, really well-done drawing of Miss Kitten in a Beauty and the Beast style dress, with shades of forest green instead of yellow. Coop only paid attention to half of what she said as he started glancing around the room for some sort of excuse to escape.

_Dammit! Why couldn’t Old Lady Munson have stayed asleep!_ And then the idea hit him. _Asleep._

Coop tried to pretend like he wasn’t anxious as he waited through another few drawings of Millie talking. After about 3 drawings he started bouncing up and down in his seat.

Millie glanced at him worriedly.

“You okay, Coop?”

“Yeah,” Coop said, continuing to bounce. “I just need to use the little men’s room. I’ll be right back!”

Coop quickly stood up and rushed to the bathroom before Ms. Munson could abject to his sudden leave. As soon as he made it upstairs and into the bathroom Coop immediately went searching through the medicine cabinet.

_Bingo_

Slipping a small bottle from the cabinet into his pocket, Coop made sure to flush the toilet and put some water on his hands before exiting the bathroom. He made sure the bottom of his shirt was hiding the bottle in his pocket before walking back in.

“Well that was quick.” Ms. Munson said with suspicion as he walked back into the living room. Coop shrugged in response and gave her a polite smile.

“I just wanted to head straight down so I could see the rest of the drawings.”

“Mmhm”

Coop made it a few feet away from the couch before suddenly tripping over his own feet and knocking over the side table in the process. The waters they had put on it spilled all over the floor and soaked into the carpet.

“Watch it boy!” Ms. Munson snapped at him as she moved to get away from the wet spot in the carpet.

“I’m so sorry!” Coop said standing up. He quickly went over to the where the glasses had landed, thankfully unscratched, and picked them up. “I’ll get some paper towels and refill your drinks. Dennis could you help me get them?”

Dennis nodded and followed Coop into the kitchen, away from a steaming Ms. Munson and a quiet but confused Millie.

Coop placed the glasses on the counter and went to the fridge to grab a jug of lemonade. As soon as they were out of earshot Coop turned to Dennis and beckoned him closer. Dennis leaned in and whispered to him.

“So?”

Coop responded by taking the bottle he’d grabbed out of his pocket and setting it on the counter next to the empty glasses. It was a small bottle of extra strength sleep aid.

“Dad says it works like magic.” Coop said, smug smile on his face. Dennis smirked. 

“Let’s hope so.”

* * *

 Kat walked around the machine, giving it a third check for any loose bolts or faulty screws. He also gave the shielding around the warp core another look and nervously went through a list of every single part they had assembled and looked around the machine to make sure it was properly in place. Unfortunately, his head just didn’t seem to be in the right place, so whenever he’d go down the list his mind would go blank, which only served to make him more anxious.

_DAMMIT! What is wrong with me?!_

He kept feeling like something was wrong but he just couldn’t figure out what it was. Megan had already gone through the list herself and told him everything was in place, which should have elevated his worries but had only proved to make him more unsettled.

_For the love of Ra I need to calm down. The damn machine’s finished. I’m just being paranoid for no reason._ His tail twitched irritably as he tried and failed to calm himself.

_Maybe if I head back._ He quickly dismissed that idea. _No!_ He didn’t like how calm he’d felt at the idea. He gave himself a little shake and decided to check, again, on the core’s shield power. Being here so long as made him idle and dependent. If he kept going back to that house. _To Millie_ , his brain added, he’d never get this thing off the ground. He needed to be ready for what came next. He violently shoved the way that thought made him feel out of his mind and concentrated on the shields output levels. 

_Everything will be just fine._

* * *

It had taken another half hour of waiting but Millie and Ms. Munson had finally dozed off on the couch, allowing the boys to make a quick getaway.

They both ran out the back door armed with their rain coats, flash lights, walkie talkies, and the makeshift map they’d put together in Coop’s room from Dennis’ sketch of the area. Luckily, after spending two hours last week on google maps and looking at the sketch, they were able to make a rough estimate of where they had been when they found Kat’s little robot bugs.

Of course, this still left actually finding the right place.

After a certain point, the forest’s trees all looked the same and it was getting hard to remember if anything around them looked familiar. It didn’t help that the last time they were here it had been dark out. Luckily, Dennis had been paying a bit more attention during their boy scout trips and was able to keep them heading in the right direction.

Though, after almost an hour of walking they both started to worry about whether they had somehow gotten turned in the wrong direction. The rain was still coming down, though thankfully in a light drizzle. In the first few minutes of walking Coop had felt frantic, the adrenaline of _finally_ escaping the house almost made him run into the forest without even looking to the map for direction. Now that the cool drizzle had calmed his nerves he could think a bit more clearly.

Whatever the cats were doing had to be near its finish if they both took the risk to leave the house. Usually Kat was the one who’d leave and the other one would stay put. Now that both of them were gone him and Dennis would have to fight two on two, and they had no idea what the little one’s fighting was like.

Coop frowned a bit, his brow furrowed.

They’d have to keep close to each other and not get separated. For all they know the cats could have been working on some new big weapons, and getting him and Dennis separated would only make taking them out that much easier.

If they really are making a weapon then it’d be best to draw them away from the area. If the weapon were small they’d have no problem hiding it somewhere in the house, so it must be pretty big. That meant they wouldn’t be able to move it around, which was good because that means they have the advantage as far as movement went. It’s also bad because if they get cornered then they’ll be toast.

Coop nodded to himself.

They’d have to draw the cats out and get them to chase. Knowing Kat he’d love nothing more than to rip them to shreds on sight. They’d have to be especially careful when provoking both of them. They’re dead if the cats catch them before they can lead them out into the open.

Coop looked around the forest as they continued to walk.

They’ll have to use the terrain to their advantage. It’s still drizzling out so that might help cover up the sounds of their footsteps.

Coop looked up at the hanging branches, obscuring what little light was seeping through the clouds overhead.

The trees won’t be of much use since they’re too wet to climb. Besides, the cats have claws and would be able to get to higher ground before them. Maybe they could- Wait. 

Coop squinted as some of the rain drops in the distanced seemed to be moving in a strange pattern. Almost like they were bouncing off something. He stopped and looked to Dennis, who was looking in the same direction. They made eye contact, nodded and both ran full speed towards it. This had to be it.

* * *

They had been working in uncomfortable silence for the last hour and forty something minutes. Kat, still buzzing around the machine checking for any little failure or bolt out of place, and Megan going over the power readings and measuring the output. The silence was only made Kat feel more uncomfortable since the only other option than checking the machine for the 50th something time would be to talk to his sister, and from her silence he figured she didn’t want him bothering her in the slightest. So, he was surprised, and more than a little relieved when he heard her speak.

“I’ll almost miss this planet.” She said. She was looking out the front windows of the ship. Her expression was blank and she still wasn’t looking at him, but at least she was talking.

The rain had turned into a light drizzle, making the once pelting force look like a soft shower, gently bouncing off the trees. Rain was not as common on their planet. To see it now with so much green was surreal.

Kat grunted, trying not to follow her gaze out the window. He’d gotten a good enough look at the planet already. There was no reason to look back now. It just gave him a knot in his stomach.

“I hadn’t gotten the chance to study the plants. It’s still amazing to see so many of them.” There was a long pause. They both knew that once the other Catonians got here they’d make quick work of the planet’s resources. This forest would probably be the first of many to go. Kat vehemently forced all thought of what would happen to the humans from his mind.

“I want you to know something,” Megan said, finally looking at him. “For when the other invaders come to this planet.”

He looked up to her with bemusement and a bit of hope. Perhaps she’d give him the chance to apologize before everything starts? His expression quickly changed to shock as she was suddenly a few inches away, with her claw at his chest.

“I am not one of your subordinates. I’m not your lackey, and I’m not a goon you can order around. I’m your _business partner_ and you’d better damn well act like it.” With each sentence, she jabbed her claw harder into his chest, almost piercing the skin. Her eyes gaze was like burning ice.

“ **And you will not** ,” She said, getting even closer to his face. “ **Bare your fangs at** **_me._** ”

Kat stared at her in shock as she held him with a cold gaze. She gave him one more glare, then turned suddenly and headed to the control panel. Kat stood there for a few seconds longer, staring at her back sadly. He slowly reached out a paw to stop her when a blaring alarm went off overhead.

They both ran to the ship’s control panel and saw the words “INTRUDERS” flashing back at them. Kat felt every emotion but rage wash away as the screen then presented them with an image of two boys forcing their way through the shields.

* * *

It had taken them some time to find the weak spot in the force field, though way less than either of them had expected, but with a bit of force they were able to squeeze through the dense wall protecting the cats’ hideout. Unbeknownst to either of them that weak point they’d found had in fact been caused by them 3 weeks ago when they had destroyed Kat’s bug bots, back when they had first followed Kat out into the woods.

The boys had just squeezed through when they heard the whoosh sound of a door opening. Without even looking at each other they instantly moved into their back to back positions and got into their fighting stance. 

They both strained their hearing to get a guess to where their adversaries were hiding in the tall grass, but the sound of the rain bouncing against the walls of the shield made it hard to hear anything. They had only just heard a twig snapping when one of the cats suddenly pounced out of the grass and tackled Coop, throwing them both a yard away and breaking their position. Dennis only had a moment to look at where Coop had been thrown before something grabbed his legs and sent him falling hard to the ground.

Dennis tried to get up but each time he got a foot on the ground a flash of purple would run past his leg, knock him back over, and run back into the grass before he could grab it, or more appropriately, kick it as hard as possible.

Coop wasn’t having much luck from the looks of it either. Dennis could vaguely see him and whichever cat is was, wrestler on the ground. Unfortunately, from this distance, with the tall grass obstructing his view, Dennis couldn’t tell who was winning, but he could hear Coop cry out. The sound had startled Dennis so much he had almost forgotten about the one he was dealing with, and tried to make his way towards Coop.

The cat didn’t seem to like that though as the next swipe at his legs was with claws and instantly teared through his pants leg leaving three long thin cuts on his left leg. Dennis cried out in pain and pulled his leg closer to his body. The cat, perhaps trying to go in for the kill, had stepped closer in response.

_Gotcha._

So sure of its victory, the cat had slowed down as it went to deal its final blow. This gave Dennis just enough time to get a good look at where the cat was and put as much force as possible into his right kick, sending the cat up out of the grass and flying right into the side of its ship. There was a yowl and a loud metallic _bang_ and the cat’s body slammed into it.

_Heh._ Dennis thought. _All that soccer’s really paying off._

* * *

 Kat was just about to take a swipe at Coop’s eyes when the sound of Megan’s yowl caught his ears. He had only turned for a second before Coop had grabbed his arm and rolled them both over, his weight pressing down on Kat’s legs. Kat tried to claw at him but from the changed position he could only reach Coop’s arms as he proceeded to throw punch after punch at Kat’s torso.

Kat took quite a few more hits then he’d like to admit before finally being able to lift Coop off of him. He had just managed to get free when Coop’s foot was suddenly heading his way. Luckily, he had expected as much and managed to dodge underneath and slip away into the tall grass. He ran on all fours towards the area he’d heard Megan’s voice and had come just in time to tackle Dennis who had been about to hit her with a large tree branch. In less than a second the branch was in pieces and in front of Dennis stood a _very_ angry Kat.

Kat didn’t even give the boy time to react before grabbing him by the arm and throwing him as hard as he could, hopefully slamming him into the shield or the side of the ship. He didn’t pay mind to where the boy landed. He instead turned to look over his sister’s injuries. Her eyes were closed and she had a hell of a bruise on the side of her head, and by _Ra_ if that little shit had given her a concussion he was going to dissect him _slowly_ with an old razor!

He was so busy fretting over Megan’s condition that he didn’t even notice when Coop ran up on him. Kat panicked as he suddenly found himself flying through the air, over the ship’s ramp and slamming onto the floor of the ship.

Kat pushed himself off the floor and let out a loud growl as he raced to the exit. Thankfully he didn’t have to go far since the boy had left Megan alone and had instead followed him into the ship. Kat would have sighed with relief if there wasn’t a human brat standing between him and his sister. He could feel his claws shaking at his sides as he and Coop stared each other down. If looks could kill Coop would be dead 50 times over, but the boy either didn’t care or didn’t have the sense to be worried.

With a yell, he ran at Kat full speed and before Kat could move to get passed him Coop made a well-placed kick to his side where a bruise had already been starting to show. Kat let out a gasp of pain and fell to his knees, the wind knocked out of him. Coop was just about to aim a kick at Kat’s head when he suddenly felt sharp claws and fangs going at his back. He let out a scream and tried to shake it off bit it just continued to dig in further.

Not knowing what else to do, Coop fell back backwards and slammed his body, and his attacker against the metal floor.

Megan tried to stand on unsteady legs and continue her attack but something slammed her hard from the side and sent her to the other side of the room. She hazily recognized that it was Dennis with another branch before throwing herself back into the fight. Coop was attacking her brother, and Dennis was keeping her away from Coop, so she’d just have to rip his throat out first.

* * *

Coop and Kat were both moving slowly thanks to their injuries but that didn’t make the fight any less vicious. Coop soon found himself with scratches all throughout his body and while they weren’t deep they were definitely making it harder for him to dodge. Thankfully the bruises he’d put on Kat were making him move slower too. He was sure he’d fractured the mutant’s rib earlier and it was making an excellent place to aim. He was also lucky since Kat kept glancing over his shoulder to cat and Dennis’ fight. This left Coop with just enough of an opening to back up and run at him full speed with his next kick, catching Kat right between his rib cage and throwing him sideways to slam into part of the machine they had been fighting around. 

* * *

Coop should have felt a rush of satisfaction when Kat’s body slammed into whatever death machine they had been working on. He definitely should have felt some sort of joy when Kat’s face went from furious to terrified within half a second, but instead he felt a cold chill go down his spine. The feeling lasted for less than a second before an incredible force slammed into him from the front then immediately hit him again from behind. He thought, in the midst of this, he had heard someone scream. Though, he couldn’t recognize the voice, and wondered who it was. He had only a moment of dazed speculation to wonder this before he promptly blacked out.


	19. Chapter 19

The first thing he noticed as he gained consciousness was the horrid ache going through his entire body. He instantly wished for sleep again but dropped the idea as the smell of smoke reached his nose.

Suddenly panicked he sat up straight and the hollow ache turned into a sharp stabbing sensation. He barely kept himself up right as he tried to look around him. The world was a hazy cloud of browns, greens, and spots of silver. He couldn’t even make out his own body. His head was pounding and the high-pitched ringing in his ears only added to the pain.

He knew he had to find something and his panic rose as he couldn’t remember what was so important and why he needed to find it.

His breath came out in sharp pants. He tried to stand up but his body felt like lead and he fell back to the ground with a pained whimper. He laid there for a few more seconds before trying again, only to get the same result.

_Fuck!_

He _had_ to get up. He needed to find something. It was unbelievably important even if he didn’t remember what it was or what he was doing here; wherever here was. It’d be a lot easier if the air wasn’t so full of smoke, then he’d at least be able to smell something.

He huffed and laid back for a moment, panting. As he laid there he tried harder to recognize the hazy colors all around him. The majority of it was dark greens, browns, and bits of shining greys. One such grey was laying a few feet away from him, glistening in what little sunlight was leaking through from overhead. He stared at it and as he did so he could feel something licking at the back of his memory. He continued to stare until that little feeling grew into flood of memories, all coming back to him at once.

Suddenly, everything came back to him in a flash of rushed images. Him and Megan in her ship. Coop and Dennis passing the force field. Them fighting. Coop kicking him into the-

The core...!

Kat’s heart clenched painfully and he felt himself go cold. He had been kicked head first into one of the most powerful energy cores this side of the galaxy. He could have been killed. He _should_ have been obliterated. That much force should have turned him to dust.

He felt his claws digging into his chest as he felt for his own heartbeat.

There. There it was. He could feel it fluttering frantically under his palm and suddenly… a rush of panicked laughter shook his chest. Each hurried heartbeat making him laugh harder.

“Heh, hehehehe!”

 _Alive._ He was alive! Of all the horrid things that have happened to him on this planet he somehow managed to survive an explosion he had been at the _center_ of!

“Hahahahaha!”

Of all the things he’d never imaged that what little luck he had would stretch this far. He was certain it had taken 8 of his 9 lives in exchange!

He laid on what he could now tell was the hard forest floor for who knows how long, laughing at his strange fortune. Each laugh shook his chest and made his body ache more but he couldn’t stop laughing.

Each laugh, while painful, seemed to slowly bring his body out of its stupor and he slowly felt some of his strength return to him. His limbs felt a little less heavy and his gasp for breath between laughs didn’t hurt as much as it used to. Soon, his loud laughter became chuckles, and then settled into helpless giggles.

By the time his laughter died down he could make out most of the world around him through his clouded vision. He was somewhere deeper into the forest, probably quite far from where he’d been thrown from, judging by the smoke he saw in the distance.

He let out another giggle as he pushed himself, very slowly, up from the ground. His body still hurt like hell but he couldn’t help but find it funny as well. He hadn’t laughed that much since him and Megan-

Oh god Megan.

Kat hurriedly steadied himself on weak legs and tried to take as deep of a breath through his nose as he could. His lungs filled with the smell of smoke, ash, and burnt metal. He almost chocked on it when he caught the whiff of something soft and familiar.

_There!_

Without much thought to the pain wracking his body, or the new height he seemed to have gained, he started off in the direction he thought the smell was coming from. 

* * *

 

_Pain, pain, more pain. Brother? Where’s brother. I need to find him. Pain won’t go away. Need brother. Pain. Please no pain. Scared. Need brother. Help. Oh Ra, I can’t move! I can’t breathe!_

Suddenly she felt herself becoming conscious.  She could feel herself waking but the world around her didn’t look anymore distinguishable than when she’d been asleep. She was looking up into what looked to be smudges of dark grey and green, but nothing seemed familiar to her.

Slowly she started to push herself up from the ground. She’d only gotten an inch or two from the ground when she stopped. Somewhere, distantly, in the back of her head where some of her brain was still functioning, she noticed that something seemed wronged; like something essential had changed and she couldn’t figure it out because the rest of her brain just couldn’t process right now.

She could see smoke and vaguely understood that that was probably a bad thing and she should, in fact, be moving away from it, but she couldn’t bring her body to move or to even turn her head.

Her body felt like it was made of stone and just sitting there in this unknown smoky darkness, unable to move and aching all over, only fueled her anxiety. She could feel her breathes coming in and out rapidly and her claws dug into the ground for purchase as the panic sank in. She was useless now and was going to die on this foreign planet! All her hard work would be for nothing as she faded into nonexistence, with only two people to remember her before she faded from their minds as well. She’d disappear like every other gutter kitten!

Suddenly, just as she felt like she was going to have a heart attack, something was grabbing her, lifting her up, and carrying her away. She couldn’t see who or what it was but it was warm and the contact had managed to snap her out of her panic for the moment. It was when her- capturer? Savior?- started talking that she also realized she couldn’t hear correctly. It was like the world was being filtered through a thick pillow. Though, she could tell by the deeper baritone that it was male and was holding her very gently.

_Aiden?_

That had to be it. Her brother had come and saved her again. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, her heart rate slowing down. She was safe now. She was okay.

She let herself snuggle closer into the warmth and her eyes closed slowly. Safe.


	20. Chapter 20

10/13/17

It's Friday the 13th in October! Happy spooky times everyone! :D

* * *

 

Coop groaned as he finally made his way past the lining of the trees and could see the edges of his back yard.

Luckily him and Dennis had already planned for this kind of event. Well, sort of. They had both known that in such a thick forest and the rain coming down it would be easy for them to lose each other. In such an event they had both agreed to meet back up at the treehouse, and by _no means_ were they allowed to look for each other.

The cats had been coming in and out of those woods for almost a month now and would have had too much of an advantage if they were found alone. No. No matter how panicked Coop felt right now he couldn’t go looking for Dennis. Dennis was the most adamant about that point and had made Coop **promise** to head back to the treehouse. So, he did and now that he was here he allowed himself to feel a bit of relief, and panic.

What would he do if he climbed up to the treehouse and no one was there?

Coop could feel him legs start to shake but forced himself to keep walking towards the ladder. As he climbed up horrid scenarios of Dennis being captured by the cats or him trudging injured through the forest flashed through Coop’s mind. The panic that’d been building in him since he discovered the…changes in his body started to climb to the surface. That, plus the idea of not seeing Dennis on the other side of that door, was overwhelming. He was on the verge of jumping back down and running back into the forest when he reached the last step and climbed up onto the treehouse floor.

After he’d woken up in the forest he almost immediately felt the difference in his body. A quick pat down had been all he’d needed to realize what was wrong, and if Dennis wasn’t behind this door he didn’t know what he’d do, or how he’s get through… _this._

With his heart in his throat Coop opened the door and almost yelled in relief as he caught sight of Dennis leaning over a pile of blankets.

“Dennis!” Coop said as he moved to rush over to his friend. Suddenly, just as he was about to rush over, the pile of blankets Dennis had been leaning over whimpered softly and shifted.

Coop froze looking from the pile of blankets to Dennis, who Coop now noticed, had a matching pair of cat ears on his head instead of human ones. Dennis was looking right back at him with a look of shock and horror. He imaged that’s how he looked when he’d realized what happened.

“Oh god” Dennis said, putting his head in his hands. Coop felt like doing the same. He was too scared to ask if Dennis had a tail as well. That had been the first thing he’d noticed when he woke up in the forest.

“I’m guessing you have no idea what happened either?” Dennis said, his voice slightly muffled by his hands. Coop shook his head and slowly made his way over to Dennis and what he’d assumed was a person hidden under all those blankets.

“No. I woke up and found out all… this had happened!” He said gesturing to his body. Dennis nodded, moving his hands away from his face. “Those damn cats actually mutated us!” Coop yelled angrily, his fist clenched and body starting to shake. He paid little mind to that fact that he was yelling in front of some random person asleep in his treehouse, or that the yelling would wake said person up.

Of all the things to happen he hadn’t expected this. Attacks? Of course! Torture? Perhaps! But this?! This somehow felt more personal. In fact, it felt like the most personal attack Kat had ever dealt him. This wasn’t a wound he could just heal. This was physically changing his body! It felt like he’d been violated!

“Not just us,” Dennis said, his voice shaking. His hand went to the edge of one of the blankets and gently pulled it back to reveal the face of a pale girl with light purplish pink hair and two large cat ears sitting on her head. She was still unconscious, Coop could see her eyelids fluttering as her eyes moved unseeingly in some apparent nightmare.

“I found her a little bit after waking up. She was passed out and shaking. I don’t know what happened to her clothes but she’s got some burn marks on her. I’m guessing the explosion may have destroyed her clothes or sent them flying.” Dennis looked down at himself. His own clothes were in tatters and his jacket had been blown clean of his body. He was lucky he still had anything covering his body.

Coop’s clothes were the same, though he paid little attention to it. He’d hardly paid it any mind after finding out what had happened to his body.

“Oh god.” Coop said sitting beside Dennis and the girl. How were they supposed to fix this? It was horrible enough that him and Dennis had gotten changed, now some random girl? How were they supposed to explain this to her? What if she panicked? Hell, Coop felt close to panicking right now.

Maybe… maybe there was a bright side to all of this? Yeah. With him, Dennis, and the girl as physical evidence they could actually get the cats locked up, and the military could force them to change them back! Yeah!

Unless… Unless this was irreversible. Or unless the government still didn’t believe them and instead locked them up as science experiments. Or worse, maybe they’ll think _they_ were aliens and were just trying to lead them into a trap? They’d lock them up for sure! Or what if-!

A pained groan from the pile of blankets beside him snapped him out of his panicked thoughts.

The girl still wasn’t awake, but she tossed and turned in her sleep and her face was pinched like she was in some of the worst pain in her life. She was shaking too, even though Dennis had covered her in 4 sets of blankets and it was almost 70 degrees outside.

Coop shook his head and lightly slapped both hands against his face.

No. Whatever happens later is later. Right now, they had to take care of this girl.

 “Okay…” Coop breathed out slowly. “There’s no way we can explain this to the police, and the doctors won’t even know what to do with this, so we’re gonna have to take care of her.”

Dennis nodded, his face was neutral but Coop could see the panic in his eyes.

“But if she gets even worse,” Dennis said, looking to her forlornly. “We may have to.”

Dennis shifted and stretched over to reach one of the notebooks they keep up here. He flips it open to a blank page and grabs a pen.

“I know a little about taking care of a sick person, but I can’t even image what those cats’ machine did to her body, or why she’s reacting like this when we’re not.” He started writing down some of her symptoms on the page.

“She’s got a fever…she’s in pain… and I can’t tell if she’s unconscious because she can’t wake up or if she’s trying to sleep through the pain.” Dennis wrote each one, his expression looking more distraught with each note.

Coop nodded, feeling like a brick was sitting in his stomach.

“Do you think we can get her to eat or drink anything?”

Dennis shrugged.

“I don’t know. I haven’t even gotten her to wake up yet, and I’m kind of scared to do that anyway. If her body’s trying to sleep through the pain then we probably shouldn’t wake her up…but, if she doesn’t get any food then her body won’t be able to heal itself.” Dennis sighed tiredly and put his hands back over his face.

“Oh god this is so bad.”

Coop scooted himself closer to Dennis and wrapped an arm around him.

“Dennis…” Coop tried to swallow the large lump that was forming in his throat. “I-I know this is really, _really_ , bad right now but I need you to listen.” Coop took in a breath and steadied himself. “Do you think she’s going to d-die?”

Dennis looked up at him, suddenly, in shocked horror.

“I-I don’t know. I don’t think so? She looks really sick but her pulse seems steady and I checked her eyes earlier.” Dennis mumbled in a rushed panic.

“I still need to check her respiratory rate, monitor her temperature, and her pulse.” Dennis said, still mumbling to himself. Coop moved to sit in front of him and grabbed both of his shoulders.

“Dennis,” Coop said, tightening his hold on his shoulders. “What do you need?”

Dennis’ eyes were still panicked, but Coop could see some of the focus return to them.

“I…I need some pain medicine. Liquid medicine, if you have it. Uh… some water, and… some clothes.” Dennis said, glancing over to her. Coop nodded. He’d probably be a lot more uncomfortable with a naked girl in his treehouse if the situation wasn’t so dire. He couldn’t imagine how Dennis felt finding her knocked out in the forest.

“Okay. I think we’ve got some liquid pain killer in the house.” Coop stood up to walk out the door but Dennis’ voice stopped him.

“And see if you can find a body thermometer!”

“Gotcha!” And with that Coop walked back down the ladder and headed to the back doors of his house.

_Medicine, water, clothes, thermometer. Medicine, water, clothes, thermometer. Medicine, water, clothes- Ah!_

Coop put a hand over his mouth as he walked into the living room and Old Lady Munson let out a loud snore. Her and Millie were still asleep on the couch, thank god, and hopefully will stay that way until he could get the stuff he needed.

A sudden ache ran through Coop’s body. He clenched his teeth to hold in a groan as he started up the stairs to the bathroom. His body had been aching horribly since he woke up in the forest. Though, he supposed, he’s lucky to only be achy and a little burnt. He’s lucky he can still walk.

 _But with how bad my bones ache I doubt I can run from Munson._  

Coop was just happy she’d left her dog at home. He’d have never gotten out of the house, let alone passed them now.

* * *

 

 

Dennis sat nervously as he watched over his patient. 

_One…Two…Three…Four…Five…_

He glanced up at the little wall clock they’d hung in the treehouse last month.

_Six…Seven…Eight…Nine...Ten…Eleven…Twelve...Thirteen…Fourteen…Fifteen…Sixteen… Seventeen._

Dennis looked up at the clock again and gave a sigh of relief. Okay, that was a little high for someone who’s sleeping but at least it wasn’t twenty. He looked at her a little closer and gave a frustrated sigh.

It’s hard to check her breathing rate with all the blankets on her, but there was no way he was going to take them off her. She was hurt enough without having someone peering at her naked. He’d already saw enough of her back in the forest and felt a ton of guilt for it. Not that he could have helped it though, given the circumstance, but he still felt bad for it.

Dennis looked at her. Her face was still pinched in pain but at least she wasn’t gasping in pain like she was in the forest. He’d been scared to even go near her when he’d heard it, worried she’d get worse if he moved her. Thankfully, her breathing, while still labored, had evened out bit. Now she was just breathing heavily instead of getting ready to scream.

Dennis felt his fist clench as he remembered the burns he’d seen on her body. They weren’t bad enough to warrant immediate treatment, but that didn’t make him any less angry.

Not only did she have to have some random guy like him see her naked, but when she wakes up she’s gonna know that her body had been burned and genetically changed. She was probably going to feel the most violated out of all of them.

And she didn’t even have anything to do with it.

Dennis could feel the guilt building up in him, and the anger.

They didn’t stop the cats in time and now not only did they have no idea where the cats were, but some random girl had gotten hurt! Oh, and not to forget that they’d all been mutated! Maybe forever!

When they finally found those little sacks of rotting skin he’d rip their-

The girl suddenly gasped and he turned to look at her.

She was breathing even more heavily now, and her eyes were partly opened. He quickly rushed over to her, but stopped a few feet away. She had started to whimper.

“It’s okay… I know it hurts but some medicine’s coming soon.” Dennis said softly. He couldn’t tell if she could actually understand him. Her eyes were unfocused and it looked like she was going to pass out again.

Her eyes closed again and she slowly rolled over onto her back, still whimpering.

Dennis sat tensely as he watched her. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. What are you supposed to do when someone’s in pain and you can’t stop it?

She suddenly started move. Dennis thought that she may be getting up, but instead she started moving her arms and legs frantically, as though the blankets were trying to smother her. Dennis rushed over to her and removed the first two layers of blankets, leaving the other 2 still wrapped around her. Slowly, she started to settle down and her thrashing stopped. Now that he was closer he could see that she had started to sweat.

_It must have been too hot for her._

Suddenly a vague memory came to mind. When he’d been little he’d often get sick and his dad would hold his hand as he went through the worst parts of the cold. Those nights when his bones felt like ice but his skin felt like it was on fire. The covers always felt to hot and he could never get comfortable.

Looking down at the whimpering girl he steadied himself and sat beside her.

_Maybe…_

His hand shaking, he reached over to lump of sheets he thought was her hand and lightly grasped it. The effect was almost instantaneous. Her whimpers suddenly stopped and her body started to shake a little less. He could feel her hand slowly start to grasp his own through the blankets.

He felt a mixture of relief and fear as he held her hand. It was good that she was starting to respond, but her grip was _so_ weak and tired. Like just kicking at the blankets had sucked all the energy out of her. He started to panic when her grip started to become lax, until he looked at her face and realized she was just going back to sleep.

He started to remove his hand, but as he tried to the girl’s hand weakly reached out and grasped his again. He flinched and looked to her face. Her eyes were still closed but he noticed the pinched look was back on her face. He let out a sigh.

_Okay…_

He settled himself next to her and tried to not think of how awkward this was or how he was holding hands with a girl who was naked beneath those two blankets. He almost moved his hand back at that last thought.

Then, his mind went back to his dad holding his hand when he was sick, and all thoughts of awkwardness fled from his mind. She needed someone to hold her hand through the pain. Fine. It was the least he could do after they’d gotten her into this mess.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's what Kat's sister looks like:  
> https://animefreak728.deviantart.com/art/Megan-Redrawn-581876257


End file.
